What Makes a Woman
by LiteraryNovelist
Summary: There are too many words and too many ways to describe and define a woman. Childhood, Teenhood, Adulthood, and Motherhood. A collection of drabbles from the LegendofZelda RP community on tumblr. Based on prompts submitted every Writing Prompt Wednesday.
1. Childhood I

**Feathers and Mud**

There had never been many animals on Skyloft. There were remlits and bugs, and of course, the Loftwings. They had been a part of Karane's life, growing up. The most important being when her Loftwing finally chose her.

She had been young when it happened, only 8 when the young bird had flown to her. While it wasn't particularly normal (usually there was a ceremony for the children to receive their Loftwings), but Karane wasn't complaining. The past year of her life had been very difficult, with her father dying in the accident and her mother's descent into depression and illness.

The past year had been tough on Karane, but that day made everything a little bit nicer.

She had been playing by the lake, in its muddy banks. While her mother hated it when she came home dirty, Karane didn't care. Her mother's scoldings and yelling was the only attention she got from her mother nowadays, so the muddier the better in her mind.

But that day, as she dirtied her best dress, a small peachy Loftwing landed beside her. Its wings and tail were tipped in olive green, and the under side of its belly was still fluffed with down feathers from the nest.

Karane stared in wonder, dropping her wad of gooey soil. She didn't know what to do with the bird, given that she had always been told that they were for "when she was older."

It squawked in a small, high pitched tone, fluffing up at her. Karane jumped at the sudden sound. It walked closer, nudging the ball of mud closer to her.

For a moment, both of them were quiet. Karane eyed the bird which was a good half foot taller than she was at this point. Then she took the mud wad back. The Loftwing ruffled itself happily and hopped even closer, letting out a little coo.

Karane grinned, her face smeared with dust and grime. She held out her hand to it, offering friendship.

It leaned forward and pressed its large beak against her fingers. Karane giggled at that. As the little Loftwing came closer, it went to settle itself down beside her, using the mucky bank as a pseudo-nest.

Karane tentatively hugged it around its soft neck, burying her face in its feathers.

After everything that had been happening to her recently in life, all of the loss and anger and pain, it felt so good to have a friend.

As she got the Loftwing just as dirty as she was, she let out a few little sniffles and cries against its coat. Because she finally had a shoulder to cry on.

Even if it was only an animal.

* * *

**Meaning**

The word was empty now.

Everyone had always told her that her father was courageous. He was brave, a hero, and noble. Everyone told her so. It had made sense Karane's entire life thus far. He went to work in the sky, his armor and goggles and Loftwing in tow. Then ,every night, he came home to her and mother, hugging and kissing and story-telling.

He had more smiles than Karane could count, and she looked so much like him that it made her feel like she belonged.

And her father was courageous.

But half a week ago, the Headmaster and the other Sky Knights had come to their house. Karane didn't hear what they said, she was in the living room with her toys, but her mother screamed and collapsed to the floor in tears.

For the next four days, everyone else on all the islands came to their house. They brought food and wreaths and idols of the Goddess. And most importantly, they brought that word.

"He died with courage." they all said. Whether they were telling her, or her mother, they were saying that word over and over.

Today, everyone was in black. All the women were veiled, and mother wouldn't hold her hand. In fact, Karane was rather alone within the crowd. She was a solitary figure with her pigtails on either side of her head going in every direction. She stared numbly at the box they had put him in.

Even now, she still heard the murmuring, "He was so courageous. A true Sky Knight."

Karane shook her head slightly and muttered, "Courage doesn't matter if you're dead."

She hadn't expected that anyone would hear her, not even her mother had been bothering to pay attention to her own daughter, but Karane got a response nonetheless.

"Don't say that," said the quiet voice, as not to interrupt the prayer. "Courage is one of the most important things. Your dad's courage meant he died keeping us all safe."

The voice belonged to Karane's kid neighbor. He was brunette and had a face as speckles as a river rock, but Karane's memory couldn't be bothered with his name. His parents had brought a cake and a fish stew. The cake had been good.

"What do you know?" Karane snapped quietly, "Your dad is still alive."

The boy frowned. Karane looked back to the bx, her blue eyes wavering as her seven-year-old body grew hollow inside. Looking at that box erased the meaning of the word courage. If courage meant dying so that random neighbors could live, then Karane didn't want to be courageous. She wanted to be a coward and live instead. She wished her father had been a coward instead.

But then she felt a hand take hers, jolting her from her descent into violent grieving.

The boy had stepped closer and was holding her hand now. He didn't look at her, he didn't say anything, he just held her hand.

Karane went back to staring at that damned box, but this time she didn't feel herself sinking down inside it. She just squeezed his freckled hand as tight as she could.

Today would not be the day that Karane would become a coward.

* * *

**You Hit Me Once, I Hit You Back**

"What goes around comes around!" Karane shouted, a feisty 6 year old at the time.

She lobbed the mud covered rock right for his head, and didn't miss this time. He hit the ground screaming, his shorter arms flailing a bit. Karane laughed triumphantly, wiping her filthy hands off on her pants.

"Serves you right!" she called back at the boy as she began to strut home. "Your mother should have taught you not to hit girls!"

But by the time she had gotten home, her mother had already found out.

"YOUNG LADY!" her mother fumed. "I cannot believe what I am hearing! You got into a fight, with another child? And he's only FIVE?"

"He hit me!" Karane defended herself adamantly.

"That doesn't matter, Karane," she scolded, index finger shaking in the ginger girl's face. "He is younger than you and so little, you can't just do that! He probably thought he was playing a game!"

Karane scowled. "Sorry," she muttered.

"Oh no you're not, but you very soon will be," her mother demanded, grabbing Karane by her grubby arm and dragging her out the door. They marched down the way, past all of their neighbors, and to the little house on the end. Her mother knocked on the door. and they waited. Inside there was shuffling before a timid little woman answered the door.

"Oh… Herine," the woman sighed to Karane's mother.

"Someone is here to apologize," her mother stated, looking down to her daughter. Karane pursed her lips and shuffled her feet.

"Sorry for throwing a rock at Fledge's head," she muttered.

Fledge's mother was about to reassure the little girl, before her own mother cut in, "Apologize to _him_, Karane."

"But—"

"No buts."

Karane huffed and crossed her arms before she went into the house and stomped her way over to the petite little boy sitting in a chair. His mother had been bandaging his ear, where the rock had hit.

"Sorry for throwing the rock at your face," she muttered.

Fledge gulped and looked to be shaking. "I-its oka-ay."

Karane peered at him before adding in a whisper, "But if you tell on me again I won't be."

* * *

**Mother**

Karane remember her mother. She remembered more of her mother near the end. Herine, her mother, had grown gaunt and apathetic about life at the end. She had grown pale and cold and spent every hour of every day staring out the window.

Karane remembered her mother's descent into depression and illness, never having the willpower to recover. Herine had stopped caring about the living, including her daughter.

Karane remember the pain and anger that had taken root in her heart, turning her into a bitter and angry child. Her mother stopped loving her when her father stopped living, and she wasn't sure she could ever forgive her for that.

But Karane also remember before it was bad. She remembered when her mother was full of sunshine and love. Herine and Karane had had a tradition of making her father a cake every weekend. Karane had always been the one to put on the frosting.

Karane remembered playing dress up in her mother's closet and traipsing around the house in too-big shoes and an adult woman's dress. Herine had always called her "my little beauty."

Karane remembered climbing into bed at night and her mother coming in to read her a new story, or sing her a song. Without fail, Karane was asleep by the end of her performance, no matter what it was.

And, most importantly, Karane remembered her mother hugging her when she thought her daughter was dreaming. They were always small, simple embraces. But there was always a small squeeze and a whisper, "I love you more than you will ever know, my precious little girl."

* * *

**Cooties**

"You're it!"

"Wait, no tag backs!"

"No take-backsies, you're it!"

Karane smiled, seeing all the local boys playing tag together. She was dirt smudged and had a scab on her knee from her most recent adventure involving caterpillars and a remlit. But hey, she could go for a game of tag.

"I'll be it!" she volunteered, seeing how upset Link was that Groose had "tagged him back." The six boys all froze in the places and looked from her, to one another.

Karane frowned in confusion. "What? I can run," she assured them.

Groose shouted, "No girls allowed, girls have cooties!"

"What?" Karane protested, balling her hands up into fists. "I do NOT have cooties! Take it back!"

But by then, all six boys had started running across the bridge, scampering into town center and away from her.

Karane ground her teeth. She would not take this insult sitting down. She stalked in their wakes, following their trail as quietly as possible for a 7 year old, and following them to where they decided to carry on their game.

"Ok, so Link you were it—"Groose began, Link protesting still, but the other boys didn't care enough to argue, for the simple fact that they WEREN'T it.

That was when Karane pounced.

She launched herself onto Groose's back, thrashing her tiny fists at his head. "TAKE IT BACK!" she yelled. "I DON'T HAVE COOTIES!"

The Cawlin, Strich, and Fledge all began to panic (Fledge in particular, given Karane's history with him) and go call for mothers and fathers to help get the hellion girl off of Groose. Groose chose to cry as the girl held him down and hit him repeatedly.

Link and Pipit, on the other hand, yelped in surprise and immediately went to pull Karane off. Link grabbed Groose from under her with Pipit, the oldest and only one big enough to take on the flailing devil, grabbed Karane and pulled her aside, despite her legs kicking out in all directions.

Groose shouted from the ground, a black eye and bloody nose brandished, "You're crazy! See? Cooties make you crazy!"

Karane huffed and seethed. She did NOT have cooties! Cooties were like germs, they made people sick! Karane didn't have them, she couldn't have them. Because if she did…

Then her cooties had made her mother sick.

* * *

**Devil-Child**

Even before her parents had died, Karane had been acknowledged as an interesting girl. People tended to call her "dynamo" or "spitfire" to her face. She didn't know what those words meant, and she didn't care.

As she got older and didn't grow out of it, the words "unruly" and "out of control!" were attributed to her in secret at the laundry gossip. But old ladies thought every kid was unruly.

It was during those two years of hell that the words "devil-child" and "banshee" were shouted at her by angry, defensive mothers, dragging their children away with them protectively.

In the two years of hell, her father had died and her mother had neglected her completely while she wasted away to nothingness. This left Karane with many uncontrollable emotions, and she took it out on the other kids she knew.

Nobody was safe.

Groose got tackled and beaten. Strich had his bugs squished. Cawlin had every pair of his pants burnt. Orielle had been held down while Karane cut her hair off. Kina had been soaked in pumpkin juice. Zelda had her toys broken. Link had his ears bashed in. Fledge had rocks chucked at his face, sometimes hitting, something not, but the fear was always there.

Pipit had one time, tried to talk to he about it.

"You're mad, Karane, and that's ok, but nobody likes you," he had said, sticking up for his weaker friends. "You can't beat up younger kids like that!"

"I already did," she snapped.

"But you can't!"

"Who's gonna stop me, pimple-face?" Her hands became fists again, like they so often did.

"I will if I have to!"

Then, she grabbed him by his scruffy hair and dragged him to the dirt, sitting on top of him to keep him pinned. "You're not big enough to stop me!" she shouted angrily. At the age of eight, Karane was a bit ahead in her growth spurts. It wouldn't last for long, though.

Pipit had struggled to get her off of him and make her stop, but his flailing was useless.

Until his mother showed up and pushed Karane off her son, grabbing him up protectively.

"Get off my son you little monster!" she had yelped, hoping that no permanent damage had been done to her precious little boy.

Karane stuck out her tongue as Mallara carried her boy off. Once again, the red headed ruddy-skinned girl was alone in the meadow. Those were the moments when her fury raged harder, when she had absolutely nobody left.


	2. Teenhood I

**Flowers**

Karane's day dreams over the years had been evolving. When she was 14 and new to the Academy, her crush just a new blossom in spring, the dreaming had begun with just that. Flowers.

In her head, he'd knock on her dorm door, dressed to the nines with a bouquet just for her. It would be like all of those cheesy romance stories that mothers told their daughters before bed. There would be a long night stroll, but then, out of the dark, some kind of monster or another would attack them. And he, being the hero of course, would slay the beast and sweep her up into his arms. Just like those silly, cheesy stories.

By the time she was 16, she had changed her mind greatly. This time, there would be no monsters, because that was completely unrealistic. In fact, the only realistic option by this time involved the date being in the day time. He had more responsibilities nowadays and his nights were filled up with volunteering to patrol or help the professors grade papers. So now, she imagined that it would start off simple. They were friends, so when they had the afternoon off they'd go to the bazaar, like usual. He'd offer to buy lunch, like his mother taught him to do, but she would of course refuse. She knew better than that. Then, on their way back, he'd propose a detour where they'd take the long way back to to the Academy, and just as they were passing by the lake, he'd comment how the sun-lit water matched her eyes. And, of course, she'd blush and stammer and try to change the topic. But, being the true gentleman she knew he was, he'd halt their movements and kiss her gently, for one brief sweet moment. Then, he'd pluck a flower from the ground and put it in her hair, one that matched her eyes. In that instant, she would no longer just be "one of the boys" like she was so often called, but she'd be "his girl" instead. She liked that option better.

When Karane was 17, there was a very brief ideal that she would be picked to the be the Goddess in the Wing Ceremony and that he'd win. She'd make his sailcloth and it would be another one of those fairy tale moments. It would start off with them playing their parts in the ceremony, but end with them both realizing how much they cared for each other. But that plan was quickly squashed when Kina was asked to fill in for the role. After all, she looked more like the statue, and Karane was trying to be a knight too, even though she had been told it was "unseemly" for a girl to compete. The next day she went to the Headmaster's office and forced him to make her a REAL Knight, and not just some eternal Academy student. She used his own daughter, a freshman at the time, as an example for the rules to be changed. Luckily, she hadn't interfered with him winning and earning his uniform. Though she envied Kina for making his sailcloth. Apparently, he had given her some flowers, but bar gossip was notoriously false.

When she was 18, she had learned to stop dreaming. He hadn't noticed after four years of pining and trying to drop subtle hints. When she was 18, another boy, a short stubby dumb kid, was actually showing interest. When she was 18, she almost considered dating him, because then at least she could go on a date with SOMEONE. But when she read the poorly written letter that Cawlin had sent, she couldn't help dreaming for just a second, that it was in his handwriting instead and that he had sent flowers.

Karane, being 19 now, had a much better outlook on her romantic life. He and she had both graduated now and were juggling full-time jobs along with each other. While making time for one another was difficult, at night, Karane would sometimes plot that, she would go to the Headmaster and request for them both to be given the day off. Or, in his case, the day and night off. She imagined that, once she got this request granted, she'd surprise him at his house when he was waking up in the afternoon, having gotten off his night shift and about to go to his evening one. But, just as he would be leaving his house, she'd be waiting. She'd be in her best civilian clothes with a sly smirk on her face.

And this time, she'd bring him flowers.

* * *

**Fight**

It was finally here. This was finally it. FINALLY, she was graduating. She was a knight, a real Sky Knight of Skyloft! After so many classes and so many years, and so much training, she had made it. Karane felt like somewhere, her father was proud of her.

It was too early in the morning for her to be up, but she couldn't even begin to sleep tonight. She was surprised she had even made it these first three hours. But here it was, about 2 in the morning, and she was wide awake, thinking about the fact that, in 12 hours, she was going to be a knight.

This not only meant that all her hard work was going to pay off, but it meant that she had a strict duty. There was a code to follow and a full time job to go along with it. Things would only get harder from here on out.

It was no surprise Karane couldn't sleep.

She looked out her window and scowled at the dark sky. She wished she could go back to sleep, but she knew it wasn't going to happen. So she thought to take a walk. Maybe the activity would help her mind slow down.

She didn't bother with boots or her uniform, her too-big night shirt would suffice for a stroll. So she tip-toed her way down the hall towards the door. She had to be careful because her neighbor, Zelda, had ears like a remlit. She would too easily be up and inquiring if Karane made a wrong move.

Luckily, she snuck out successfully and was able to dig her toes into the dewy grass. She let out a sign and looked out at the silent, sleeping Skyloft that she knew so well. It was quiet and peaceful, but there was still a missing part of the skyline.

Karane would never get over looking to her left, and finding the Goddess Temple missing. Now, it was miles and miles below, where the land was dangerous and dark.

She leaned over the edge, a night time gust blowing her loose night shirt and red hair around. Looking down, all she could see was pitch black. It scared her a little bit. Nothing down there was familiar. Nothing down there was safe. Monsters roamed and skulked the shadows everywhere, and yet the denizens of Skyloft were supposed restore it in the name of Hylia.

She went back inside, trying to shake the jarring thoughts from her mind.

Because today, she was going to graduate, and that meant it was time to fight.

* * *

**Easy as Pie**

"Its awful," Karane said flatly.

"Nah, its fine," Pipit insisted.

At age 15, Karane had been trying to learn to cook from the charitable residents of Skyloft. Luv had given her a recipe and shown her how to do it, but when Karane tried to recreate it in the Academy's oven, she had produced this object.

The crust was charred and rock hard, the filling was oozing our from all sides in chunky lumps, and her attempt at a lattice top had come out crooked and broken.

Pipit, Link, and Zelda had all come to try tasting her try at cooking.

"I bet it tastes as bad as it looks," Karane sighed.

This time, Zelda reassured her, "No…. Its probably fine."

"I'm gonna be honest," Link muttered, "I'm not very hungry."

Karane laughed, "Neither am I."

Pipit, on the other hand, was always either courteous or asleep. "It looks delicious, Rane," he insisted, cutting himself a blackened piece of pie.

Zelda, Link, and Karane all winced in unison as he chomped down on the first bite.

They watched as Pipit's facial expression tried very very hard to hold in the increasing disgust. But after 10 careful seconds, he managed to swallow it.

"So?" Karane asked, struggling to stifle her laughter.

"Well… Maybe you just need practice?" he suggested, trying to be nice.

But Link had the winning comment of the day, "I think we should throw it at Groose."

* * *

**Missing**

She had been slow to notice, but Karane did indeed notice. Some of her hair ties were missing. It was weird to think this. They were frivolous items and barely considered important. But they WERE gone…

It was so weird.

Karane shook her head and began to look through all her drawers and cabinets, looking to see if she could find them again. She only had one now, and she couldn't wear her usual pigtails without two.

But try as she might, they were not there.

Karane huffed in frustration as she slunk out of her room, planning to head straight for the bazaar to buy some new replacements.

And down the stairs, next to the door, behind the plant, Cawlin was pocketing the fifth in his collection of Karane's hair ties.

* * *

**Fear is a Thing**

Fear is a thing with claws. Fear is a thing with jaws. Fear is a thing which raking its talons across your insides, scratching and climbing its way up from your gut and into your throat, choking off all semblance of air.

Fear is a thing which consumes you from the inside until you can no longer think, and all you know is that thing inside you, ripping you apart.

She felt fear for split seconds before a battle, sometimes. She felt fear when she was flying on Hatchet and a tornado popped up in distance. But these were only brief moments of far. More like the tameable beast called apprehension.

When fear consumed her was when the normalcy broke.

There were a few things life Karane could count on. She count count on the sun rising, the stars shining, Loftwings flying, and class always started at exactly 8AM sharp.

Today, class started at exactly 8AM, lie always. She had her seat in the back of the class, all the sophomores and juniors gathering in the front. In the minutes leading up to class, they were chittering to one another about what so-and-so said at the bazaar last week, or taking bets on who would be the Goddess in this year's Wing Ceremony.

Karane went about double-checking her homework while she waited for Pipit. They were the only seniors in the Academy, and had been great friends for years. He just hadn't noticed that she was falling in love with him. Only mild affliction, really.

Then, the clock rung 8, and Professor Owlan came in.

"Quiet now," he commanded, "its time for class."

Karane looked up, startled.

It was already 8AM? No, it couldn't be… Were the clocks off? Had Groose and his flunkies played a joke on the professors?

It couldn't be 8AM, Pipit wasn't here yet. He was always on time for class, _always_. Every day, he got off his patrol shift at 5AM, took a small nap, then came to class just in time. Every day like clock work.

Panic began to bubble in her gut, setting the fast simmer which would resurrect that beast called Fear. She looked frantically to Link, trying to see if he was concerned at all.

Nope, he and Zelda didn't seem to notice. Neither did Fledge, and of course the triad of terror were barely even paying attention to Owlan.

For the next ten minutes, fear festered inside her belly. It scorched her fingers from the inside, making the world feel numb. It clawed at her throat, emptying all hydration from her body.

For ten minutes, she lived in fear that maybe, just maybe, Pipit hadn't made it back. Everyone knew how high the mortality rate of Sky Knights were. Everyone in the Academy had at lost parents, and many of them had lost fathers to the cause. It was very plausible, really. A monster could have gotten him while his back was turned, or a tornado could have dismounted him from his bird. Or, like the fate of his own father, maybe his bird wouldn't come when he called it.

Her mind left, and only the fear remained, blurring her vision.

She didn't notice him coming in ten minutes late. Pipit quickly shuffled to the back and took his seat next to her, whispering, "Hey, what did I miss? I slept late."

Karane stared at him, frozen in shock and relief. It took everything she had not to just start hugging him and yelling at him all at once. But she gulped and whispered back, shakily, "N… Not much. Just going over the homework."

* * *

**Gone**

Childhood innocence was like a snowflake. It took its time forming, then it dropped from the sky in a beautiful descent. No one childhood was alike, too, and sometimes, they would live longer if they spent time with each other.

But ultimately, they all always ended. They would melt at time went on, and they'd fade, seeping into the ground the foster new growth and life.

Karane remembered the moment her childhood innocence finished melting. She was 13, so by now she was older and taller and starting to grow up. Physically and mentally. But she had always kept even a small semblance of innocence and fun.

But today, she knew. Today, she knew that there was no more innocence, because she didn't want to have a childhood anymore. She wanted an adulthood now.

It happened during a day of physical training for the Knights Academy. She was only a freshman, but it was important to start the sparring early.

And of course, she had to spar against her friend and fellow Freshman, Pipit. She had expected this and had no issues with it. They were buddies and had sparred before.

But today was particularly hot out, and Pipit had asked if it was ok if he took his shirt off, to get some relief. Karane shrugged as she tied her shoe, "Yeah do what you want, I don't care."

When she looked back up he was shirtless and covered in seat and freckles.

From that moment on, Karane new that her childhood innocence had ended.

* * *

**The Real Enemy**

When she was a sophomore, Karane realized that her real enemy was the water.

It was one those infamously hot summer days in Skyloft, and all of the youths had been given permission to take off early from classes to go get some relief from the sun. So, obviously, swimming was the answer.

Karane and Pipit were on a 15 minute delay from everyone else, being that they were the only sophomores and had a few extra assignments, but they quickly caught up .

At the side of the lake, Karane tried her best to avert her gaze when Pipit too his shirt off. That failed miserably and she sighed internally as she kicked off her baggy pants and removed her top layer of light linen clothing. It was really annoying, sometimes, how Skyloftian attire involved so many layers.

But then she jumped on in with Pipit, joining the rest of their peers. She dunked her head under the water, feelings into cool moisture seep into her skin and hair. Sweet, sweet relief.

When she came back up, opening her eyes, she glanced over to Pipit, and saw he was leaving.

"I—er—I'm going to go see Link..! I'll… I'll catch up with you later, Rane!" he called.

Karane was confused. Why was he just bolting off like that? Pipit never did that…

"NICE BRA!" Cawling laughed, pointing at her very recently developed chest. Looking down, Karane could see that her white undershirt had become transparent in the cold lake water, displaying her navy chest wrappings for the whole world to see.

Her face went bright red and in that moment there was only one piece of relief. Pipit wasn't around to hear it.

Karane whirled around, slapping the stubby freshman across the face before she zoomed out of the water, grabbing her clothes and running back to the dorms.

As she hurried away, she realized… That must have been why Pipit left. He was too uncomfortable and embarrassed for her to stick around.

Tears prickled her eyes as she slammed her room door shut.

Yes, the water was Karane's real enemy.

* * *

**Immunity**

Karane had been born with sun-kissed skin. It was one of her better qualities and it made it much easier for her to be outside, because she rarely got sun burnt.

This was unusual because many of Skyloft's citizens were pale and suffered greatly from the sun's rays. But Karane didn't mind, because she just tanned even more in the sun, but never ever seemed to burn.

"How can you do that?" Pipit asked one day when they were young. She was no more than 11 at the time, when her best friend had found her masking in the warmth of the sun on a roof, in only her underclothes.

She grinned cheekily and answered, "Because I can't get sun burn."

"Everyone can, 'Rane," Pipit corrected her.

"Nope, not me~" she declared in a sing-song voice I'm immune~"

That day, Pipit had been the one to get sun burnt on the roof, his freckles skin growing a painful shade of pink, and his skin beginning to peal. But, a few years later, when Karane had been sun bathing in a more reclusive location, as to avoid unwanted eyes, she had come back with the inklings of pain on the back of her legs.

The next morning, she was complaining about it openly and wondering what was wrong with her calves. Upon examination, it was clear that, against all odds, she had gotten very bad sun burn on the backs of her calves.

Pipit's only words to her while she lathered on creams and balms was, "I told ya so."

* * *

**Help**

Everybody in Skyloft did their laundry in one spot: the bridge above the river. So it was no surprise that whenever you went there, at least five others were right there too, competing for the prime washing spot.

Karane was used to do laundry there, but when she entered the Academy at the age of 13, she had to learn how to wash twice as much laundry in half the spare time. That was no easy task to accomplish.

Being in the Academy meant that dirty laundry piled higher than usual. In addition to her regular clothes, Karane now had twice daily training clothes that became filthy five minutes after they were worn to practice.

During her first week of classes, Karane had forgotten to make time for laundry until dinner time on Sunday. She had no more clean clothes and had to get it done before morning, or go to training in her nice clothes.

She huffed and puffed as she sprinted to the bridge, fat basket of laundry in tow, and was relieved to see only one other person still there doing laundry. It was Gerba, Gondo's strict and scary mother.

Karane didn't even try to make conversation, opting instead to catch her breath with heavy pants as she started stringing her laundry into the stream. It took her hours to finish the first batch of laundry, and by the time it was done to be put on a clothes line, Karane had fallen asleep on the bridge, leaning against its stone wall.

When Karane startled awake the next morning, her laundry basket was filled up with her freshly cleaned and folded clothes. No note, no sign of who had done it, just fresh laundry in time for class.

Karane never did find out that Gerba took pity on the young girl aspiring to knighthood.

* * *

**Irony**

In avid and premature anticipation, Karane had begun to sew a sailcloth for Pipit. It was Wing Ceremony season, and Pipit was everyone's obvious pick to win it. He was older and by far more skilled, so the entire island was pretty much expecting his victory. Not that the underclassmen minded, he was playing to become a junior, so of course he would win. The rest of them were in it more for the practice.

Karane had begun to assume that she would play the Goddess, as stereotypical as it was, she was also trying to become a junior, so it only made sense that she would be the second most important part and be allowed up a class level.

So she had started work on a sailcloth for Pipit. He had started volunteering for Night Patrol training recently, avidly voicing his interest in taking on the extra job to earn money and experience.

Knowing this, Karane was making him a sailcloth that would fit a Knight Patrolman. She had convinced Wryna to give her special sewing lessons last month, as not to arouse any suspicion. She couldn't have other people figuring out her plan, they might notice her growing crush on the brunette.

The fabric she had picked was a deep, dark blue that matched the night sky. The embroidery thread she bought shone like silver. It had cost her a pretty penny too, but it was worth it.

She started with traditional bird signet, granting luck and valor to the sailcloth and whoever used it. Then, she started making a nice border in some spare gold thread that Henya had given her for patching up clothes. Though her training garb still had some holes in it, that could wait until after the sailcloth.

It still felt too empty by the time the border was done. Karane noticed that she had made the signet too small, so there was much more space left over than there should have been.

So she decided to put in stars.

Scattered across the midnight canvas, she embroidered silver shimmers of stars here and there. By the time she was done, it was the most beautiful and important thing Karane had ever created.

But then she was told that Kina was going to play the Goddess.

Her work had been for naught. Kina was going to make him his sailcloth and it was going to be severely average, she knew. But, then again, everything was average in comparison to what she had made.

Karane put the sailcloth she had made away deciding only to keep it as a momento of what could have been.

She wouldn't show him the stars for a long time, not until she was moving into his house.

* * *

**Raging Remlit Dare**

"I raging remlit dare you toooooo~" Kina drawled on in the circle of giggling teenage girls. "Go jump off the top of the waterfall!"

Karane scoffed, "Psh, any day. That's too easy, Kina."

"Naked."

The entire circle of girls went silent. Zelda had her mouth open in a grin of disbelief. Orielle clapped a hand over her mouth. to hold in the laughter. Even Peatrice seemed intrigued, lifting one eyebrow as she waited for Karane's answer.

It was one of those rare nights when the five young ladies of Skyloft were having a group slumber party, and it of course resulted in a game of Truth or Dare. Karane, being a bit of a dare devil who didn't want to answer the question 'who was your first kiss?' chose the dare.

She regretted that immediately.

"N… Naked?" Karane asked for clarification.

"Yep," Kina nodded, a victorious smirk on her lips. "That is, unless you wanted to answer the question?"

Karane couldn't admit that she had never been kissed. She was the oldest one here, she'd look stupid.

"Ok. Shall I do it now?" she agreed, standing up with her bravery and pride in tact.

The gaggle of giggling girls all scurried along in the thick of night, hurrying to the lake. They all waited on the shore, with her clothes, as she hurried up the path to the top.

Luckily, it was night time and nobody was around, not that they could see much in this dark. Really, agreeing to it now was much better than daylight hours, where the whole island would be able to see her.

Karane wasn't even afraid of jumping, she was just afraid of something going wrong and somebody showing up at the worst time possible.

She was at the top and she could see her female fellowship down below at the shore. They waved to her in encouragement but stayed quiet to avoid getting caught out this late at night.

She closed her eyes and held her breath, then she jumped, hugging her knees to her bare torso as she cascaded down the side of the waterfall, racing the water as she went.

She landed with a huge, noisy splash, and began to swim back to shore.

But then, as predicted, the most inopportune moment arrived. Just as Karane was pulling herself back up from the water, ready to get dresses again, the spotlight of a Night Patrolman landed on all five of the girls.

"Hey, is everything ok over here, I heard a splash—"

his words were interrupted as Oriella and Zelda, moving fast and smart, shoved Karane back into the water. She sputtered only slightly until she clearly heard to voice of the certain patrolman on watch.

"Oh, Pipit, its nothing, we're just… seeing how far we can throws rocks in the lake," Kina quickly lied, smiling sweetly. Karane dunked her head underwater, hiding in the dark safety it offered.

"Yeah, just… tossing stuff," Peatrice drawled apathetically.

"But I saw someone jumping off the waterfall," he pondered. "And weren't there five of you…."

"Why do you ask so many questions Pipit?" Oriella snapped.

"Seriously, we're just chucking rocks into the water," Zelda added in defensively. "I mean REALLY, can't some girls just chuck some rocks late at night anymore?"

"Sorry," Pipit muttered. Karane was beginning to run out of air.

"So how about you leave us alone now?" Kina insisted, pushing him back to his loftwing. "There are more important things for you to be doing than spying on our girls only sleep-over."

"Right, sorry, ladies," he apologized again, mounting up and preparing to take off.

But just before he left, he asked, "Wait, where's Karan—"

"She's not here, leave us alone!" All three of them shouted at once. As usual, Peatrice just glared.

He took off, and Karane's head thrust out of the water, gasping on air.

"Sweet Goddess," she panted, getting back to shore with a shiver, "Never again, Kina. Never, ever, again."

* * *

**History**

"You know this one, Pipit," Karane repeated lethargically. It was another late night in the study room, tutoring her best friend in history, one of his worse subjects. He might be the bird expert, but he was from acing his history exams yet.

"Is it…. the Storm of 375 that created the second cloud dome?" Pipit asked, trying so hard and hoping to have it right.

Karane bit her lip in despair and shook her head.

The two of them had been at it for hours, and it was past midnight. Both were absolutely exhausted. They were fifteen, and neither was supposed to be up this late.

"No, its the Storm of 275, Pip," Karane yawned. She looked sleepily at the boy beside her. He was just as tired as she was, but determined to get this right. She admired him for that. He was always persistent, to the very end. Determined to get just what he wanted. For Pipit, failure was not an option.

"Right, 2…. 75," he corrected, yawning heavily.

"Look, Pipit, we should go to sleep. We can do this tomorrow morning before class," Karane began, but she was silenced by his outstretched hand, index finger up and only a few centimeters from her lips.

Oh how she wished the distance would be closed.

But it was not intentional, his eyes were closed and he was in mid-thought. He was just aiming badly in his gesture.

"Mmmmm… Ok," he declared, lowering his hand and nodding. "I'll remember that."

Karane couldn't help the lazy smirk across her lips as she turned the page in their textbook.

"Ok, now, for the history of the Sky Knight Academy…"

* * *

**Battle of the Sexes**

Everyone always said life wasn't fair, and in some respects they were correct.

Such as, it wasn't fair when she was forced to share HER cookies with the neighbor kids on HER birthday. They hadn't even been at the party, sheesh.

Or, it wasn't fair when she was told that she could never really be a Sky Knight, because she was a girl. That comment had resulted in a rock being thrown through the perpetrator's window.

But what really got her, was that after she had invested three long and treacherous years into the Academy, she was being refused entrance into the senior class.

"What do you mean I'm not 'suite' to it?" she demanded of the Headmaster.

Gaebora cleared his throat awkwardly and folded his hands. "Well, Karane.. women do not attend the Sky Knight Academy… it isn't the ladylike thing to do, and I just don't think you're up to it."

Karane fumed, and it was obvious from the look on her face. Her tan cheeks were boiling over with red hot fury.

"I'm sorry," she snapped, keeping her voice as even as humanly possible, "Are my marks in exams low?"

"No… actually you're doing very well," Gaebora assured her.

"Yeah, I do better than Pipit," she agreed with a curt nod. "So is it my physical ability? Am I not up to par with the sword?"

Gaebora faltered, but he had to answer honestly. "Well… no, you do rather well…"

"So what is it, Headmaster?" she demanded. "Why am I 'not cut out for it'?"

There was a tense silence filling the room. When Gaebora didn't answer, Karane boldly and blatantly asked, "So its my vagina?"

Gaebra's eyes grew by five sizes and he sputtered, "Young lady!"

"It is though, isn't it?" she shouted, obviously distraught and furious about being denied her dream.

"It…. Its…." Gaebora stammered. Then, he sighed and decided to be blatantly honest with her. It had to be done. "Its not frugal of our race to put our women in those kinds of dangerous situations on a regular basis. You know how your father died, how your friends' fathers have died. For our people to even still have a population, we have to keep our women safe."

Karane scowled at him. "I hate to disappoint you, Headmaster, but I don't think I'll be spitting out a bunch of babies, even if I wanted to. In case you hadn't noticed, I have a nose the size of the island and a forehead even bigger. I'm not pretty and of all the girls on the island, I'm not gonna get picked," she told him blandly. "So you might as well make me of some use by putting me in the feild."

"Karane, its just not done."

"Then what about your daughter?" she reminded him. "She's interested in the Academy too, isn't she? What are you gonna tell her when she's trying to become a junior? You know Zelda, she won't take no for an answer. And neither will I."

Gaebora narrowed his gaze, but he knew she was right. His daughter wanted to be in the Academy too, and it wasn't exactly fair to prevent girls from attending… But it was not wise for them to die when they could have helped perpetuate the race.

Karane stood up. "Get back to me in two days. If the answer is still 'no' then I'm going to go celibate just to spite you." She walked out in a rage.

In the hall, she stalked down the stairs, arms pumping at her sides, hands in fists.

She almost ran right into Pipit, clad in his shiny new yellow Knights uniform.

"Hey, Karane! How's it goi—" he started.

"MEN ARE IDIOTS!" she shouted at him, violently knocking that stupid pointy hat off his head before she left the Academy, fleeing its ground and its bigoted system.

Sometimes, life just wasn't quite fair.

* * *

**Gross**

"Are you serious?" Karane asked in disbelief.

"Yeah…." Link confirmed, rubbing his forehead. "I didn't want to see what I saw but…. Headmaster Gaebora is the one hogging the bathtub."

"Th… Thanks Link… you can go wash your eyes out now," she chuckled awkwardly. The blond teen happily obliged, he really wished he had not seen that.

Karane shook her head in disbelief. So her late night baths were being interrupted by her stupid fat Headmaster, taking part in the oh-so-girly habit of pampering oneself unnecessarily. And he had told HER she wasn't man enough for the Academy.

Karane laughed a bit as she shook her head and grabbed her towel and soap.

Well, she might not be able to use the Academy's bath, but she knew a small, secret little island not far away where she could sneak in a hot spring visit.

A few months later, she'd find him in the hallway and end up thanking the Headmaster for "breaking her of her horrible late night habit of taking drawn out baths." After all, he was right.

"Its such a waste of water."

* * *

**Fight**

It was finally here. This was finally it. FINALLY, she was graduating. She was a knight, a real Sky Knight of Skyloft! After so many classes and so many years, and so much training, she had made it. Karane felt like somewhere, her father was proud of her.

It was too early in the morning for her to be up, but she couldn't even begin to sleep tonight. She was surprised she had even made it these first three hours. But here it was, about 2 in the morning, and she was wide awake, thinking about the fact that, in 12 hours, she was going to be a knight.

This not only meant that all her hard work was going to pay off, but it meant that she had a strict duty. There was a code to follow and a full time job to go along with it. Things would only get harder from here on out.

It was no surprise Karane couldn't sleep.

She looked out her window and scowled at the dark sky. She wished she could go back to sleep, but she knew it wasn't going to happen. So she thought to take a walk. Maybe the activity would help her mind slow down.

She didn't bother with boots or her uniform, her too-big night shirt would suffice for a stroll. So she tip-toed her way down the hall towards the door. She had to be careful because her neighbor, Zelda, had ears like a remlit. She would too easily be up and inquiring if Karane made a wrong move.

Luckily, she snuck out successfully and was able to dig her toes into the dewy grass. She let out a sign and looked out at the silent, sleeping Skyloft that she knew so well. It was quiet and peaceful, but there was still a missing part of the skyline.

Karane would never get over looking to her left, and finding the Goddess Temple missing. Now, it was miles and miles below, where the land was dangerous and dark.

She leaned over the edge, a night time gust blowing her loose night shirt and red hair around. Looking down, all she could see was pitch black. It scared her a little bit. Nothing down there was familiar. Nothing down there was safe. Monsters roamed and skulked the shadows everywhere, and yet the denizens of Skyloft were supposed restore it in the name of Hylia.

She went back inside, trying to shake the jarring thoughts from her mind.

Because today, she was going to graduate, and that meant it was time to fight.

* * *

**Cawlin**

It hadn't taken long for Cawlin to attempt revenge on Pipit. He left threatening notes under Pipit's door, and he started glaring at them wherever they went. Karane knew that this whole incident wouldn't pass without some kind of reaction from him.

But Karane was not expecting be cornered by the short, pudgy underclassman.

"Please go out with me!" he begged, holding out a bunch of poorly picked flowers in his hands. He had her trapped in the corner o the corridor, right outside her door.

"Cawlinnn," Karane groaned, "No, I'm with Pipit. I'm sorry but you can't do this!"

"Yes I can!" he refuted. "He stole you from me, I'm going to do that same! I'll be better than Pipit! I have more money, I can buy you stuff!"

"Cawlin, NO."

"Don't deny your true feelings, Karane!" he insisted, leaning up to try to kiss her.

It was all too easy to shove him aside with her gloved hand, gagging in disgust as she hurried in the other direction.

Never again would she take sympathy on a boy that wormy.

* * *

**Its the Most Horrible Time of the Year**

"Goddess above, please release us from this torturrrreeeee," Zelda whined out loud.

It was in the heat of summer, as most hot days were, and there were no classes today. But, being that they were juniors, Pipit had volunteered an extra patrol for the money. Karane had opted to spend time with her other friends, like the blond besties better known as Link and Zelda.

The three of them were laying the shade of a tree, stripped down to singular layers of shirts and pants, trying to hard to get rid of the heat.

"Why does this always happen?" Link groaned. "I can barely even sleep a full night in this heat!"

"What's a full night for you, blondie," Karane laughed, "18 hours? Oh dear, have you been restricted to a measly EIGHT?"

Zelda giggled and Link cracked a tired smile. "Ha ha ha, everyone laugh at me."

They fell silent again, panting mildly from the sheer heat of the air.

Two minutes later, Karane pushed herself up. "Nope, I'm done with this," she groaned. "I'm going swimming."

"But Groose and his flunkies are hogging the lake," Zelda reminded. "And its not worth it to put up with their stupid harassment."

"Pssh," Karane scoffed, "Zelda, you know I've dive bombed into that lake naked in the middle of the night. That body of water has my name all over it."

"Wait you did WHAT?" Link gaped as Karane took off, marching with purpose towards the lake.

On her way, Karane swung by Kukiel's house, a plan forming. "Hey kiddo, wanna pay a game?" Karane asked enthusiastically.

"YEAH!"

"Ok, get in your swimming clothes real quick."

The tiny girl complied, and Karane picked her up to carry her to the Lake with her.

Sure enough, Groose, Cawlin, and Strich were all there, blocking off the entrances into the lake water.

Groose snickered at Karane. "What, you're gonna come swim? Duh huh huh, bring Zelda next time. I could use some eye candy~"

Karane grinned and scooped the little girl into the crook of her left arm before launching Kukiel over the stupid pompadour and into the waiting cold water. Kukiel squealed with joy and began to splash about.

Groose, Cawlin and Strich all gaped at the fact that she had just thrown a small child. "Are you crazy—"

"This lake is mine, meat-heads," Karane told him. "So you can hog up the banks ALL YOU WANT, because I can so easily just go over your heads."

"Duh huh what makes you think its YOURS?"

"Yeah, I don't see your name anywhere!" Cawlin agreed.

Karane smirked confidently. She crossed her arms and whispered, "Wanna bet?" in a charmingly challenging tone.

The three of them just shook their heads skeptically.

"Kukiel, dear~" Karane called, queuing the little girl for the final phase of their plan.

Having been ignored since she landed safely in the water, Kukiel had snuck up quietly on the three boys and she dove underwater and pants-ed all three of them as fast as she could, stealing their swimming pants right from the water.

Kukiel giggled in euphoria of having played the game well and Karane grinned.

"Now, you're stuck here," she taunted, kicking off her shoes and jumping in the water regardless, rejoining Kukiel to delight in their victory.

Zelda had told her later that the looks on their faces were some of the best things ever to behold.

* * *

**Blue**

There was only one kind of butterfly, and it came in blue. As a girl, Karane hadn't liked them very much because they were all the same, boring and fluttering around in the same areas.

But as a teenager, she began to grow a new found appreciation for the winged insects. While they were still boring to watch flutter in circles all day, the shade of blue on their wings was the exact same shade of indigo as Pipit's eyes.

And that was all it took for those stupid, boring butterflies, to make Karane's top ten list of Skyloftian insects.


	3. Adulthood I

**Lady Knights**

Karane had heard the stories from Link all about his adventures on the Surface and saving the world. But one aspect of the stories really caught Karane's attention.

His sacred sword had been called Fi, and Fi was always referred to as a "she."

Karane decide she wanted to meet this "Fi." So she trekked on down to the Sacred Grove and marched herself into the ruins of the ancient temple. There, in the serene beauty of the crumbling temple did she see the beautiful blade resting in its pedestal.

She walked over and took a seat beside the sleeping sword, its spirit slumbering inside. She smirked at it.

"So, you're the famous Fi," Karane remarked, knowing that she would not get an answer. She just sat there for a while, enjoying the quiet and thinking over all the tales Link had told her about this blade. It had seen him through good times and bad. It had helped him defeat Demise and Ghirahim and countless other monsters. This sword was the Goddess's divine power channeled into a physical form, sent to protect the land and its inhabitants.

Karane looked to the sword and smiled softly, genuinely.

"For the record," she stated, "I'm a Lady Knight too."

* * *

**For Ladies**

Growing up, Karane's mother had a jewelry box. The box was beautifully carved wood with a shiny lacquer on all sides, and inside was a veritable treasure trove of shining necklaces and earrings.

There was a story behind every one of them. The green glass earrings had been a present from her father when they were still dating. The necklace on the golden chain with the ruby pendant had been an heir loom from her grandmother. The opal ring was her engagement signet, to be passed down.

There was a story for them all.

Whenever Karane asked to wear a piece of the jewelry, her mother had told her, "No, honey, jewelry is for ladies. You're still a child, but someday when you're bigger you can wear whatever you like."

When her mother had been ill for a year straight, Karane would sneak in and steal an earring here or a bracelet there, wearing them to classes before returning them that night. She'd show mother who a REAL lady was.

Yet through all her years in the Academy, she never went through the inherited box of gems. She had, honestly, forgotten about them after her Knight training started.

Now, ten years later, Karane found the old lacquered box in her cluttered drawers. Today, she was finally moving out of the Academy dormitory and into her own house again.

She sat on the ground and smiled as she opened it up and dug through each and every shiny bit. They were all there, just as she remembered. Only this time, Karane knew she was a lady. She was 19 now, and a Sky Knight. If she wasn't a lady by now then she'd never be one.

Karane slipped on the ruby pendant before gathering the rest of her things into the last box and left, joining Pipit in the hall. He was helping her move between his patrol shifts.

"That's pretty," he commented with a smile.

"Yeah," Karane agreed. "It was my mom's. I almost forgot it existed."

* * *

**Clinks and Chinks**

The standard issue chainmail for the Sky Knight always made little clinking noises when someone walked in it. As a child, Karane had liked the sounds, because they sounded like little pretty bells that heralded the approach of a gallant hero or some responsible patrol man.

But when she had to start wearing one herself, she quickly grew incredibly annoyed with that sound. Everywhere she walked, _chink chink chink._ Without fail, someone could always hear her coming or going, and even worse, the tiny clanging sounds followed her wherever she went. She could never not hear her own movement.

Needless to say, it was got painfully annoying after a while.

After graduation, Karane had to wear that musical chain mail more and more, considering it was the uniform and line of defense for her job as a Sky Knight. While she loved being a knight Karane could not in all honesty say she enjoyed the bells constantly following her.

So, one day, when she found she could not quite handle the clinks in her ears, when she was alone on patrol at the huge Lake, she took it off.

First, she had to remove her green tunic, which was not the hard part. Once the linen uniform was out of the way, it was time to get rid of that tedious armor. She unbuckled its left side, where it was held together, and she let it fall to the ground in a fast but short symphony of metallic bells.

And then, Karane in only her her long-sleeved linen undershirt, everything was quiet.

She smiled, because for this short moment, she no longer had to hear bells.

* * *

**Refusal**

Sick, ill, unwell, infected, weak. These were all things that Karane refused to be. She simply would not be sick, ever.

She had decided this at a young age, and even though she made mo extra efforts to preserve her health, her determination actually worked. Through sheer force of will, Karane avoided the flu annually and never got infected by any of the other children or adults on the island.

But that hadn't stopped her from getting sick as an adult.

"Please go back to sleep. Stop trying to get up, 'Rane!" Pipit pleaded.

"I'm NOT sick," she insisted, her beak-ish nose clogged up with mucus, causing her voice to come out muffled and odd. "I never get sick."

"You have a fever," he reminded her with a chuckle.

The usually spunky and dutiful woman he adored was bed-ridden and pathetic. It was amusingly cute in a way, because she was right. She never got sick.

Karane groaned, trying once more in vain to get out of bed. But even a small nudge to her shoulder was enough to send her back down into her sheets. She was as weak as a baby remlit, and Karane hated it.

"This is what it feels like to die," she complained.

That made Pipit laugh even more. He sat nest to her on her mattress, offering the bowl of soup he had brought. "Its not that bad," he soothed. "I had this bug last week, remember? You'll be better in no time."

Karane looked up at him with a lack-luster frown. Her hair was a wild mess and her usually tan skin was pale and blotchy with fever. Even her blue eyes had lost their shine. She was pathetic.

"I never get sick," she argued. Maybe if she said it enough, the fever would go away.

"Well, this time you did," he reminded her gently, reaching out and taking her hand, giving it a comforting squeeze.

* * *

**A Swish and a Spin**

Karane didn't wear dresses. She hadn't really worn them since her mother died. Dresses were for fancy occasions or for pretty girls, and for most of Karane's childhood, she was not considered a "pretty little girl."

She spent too much time in the mud for dresses to be practical, so by her ninth birthday she had taken to wearing only pants and tunics.

Yet she always kept one nice dress in the back of her closet, just in case she had a need for it. She doubted she ever would.

She had worn pants, as an act of defiance, to her mother's funeral. She got scolded by some adults for the act of rebellion.

She had worn pants to her entrance ceremony into the Academy. That time it was less out of defiance and more out of a need to be on equal footing with her all-male peers.

She had even worn pants to her graduation ceremony, though in her own defense, the tunic on top had been very pretty.

Now, she was a Knight and all she wore were pants. Patrol, training, or even just in civilian clothes, all she wore were pants.

But she still kept that one dress, just in case.

Then one day, she wore it. It had taken her a while to get used to, and she spent an entire hour just pacing her room, in the dress, trying to build up the confidence to go outside in it.

Karane's figure was usually masked completely by the many thick layers that consisted of the Sky Knights uniform, but really, the world wasn't missing much. She was muscular and lean, meaning very little on top. At least in comparison to other women around Skyloft, she was almost flat. Her arms were not a pretty feminine shape, they were a little bit bulked, given her sword training. So were her shoulders, which made the whole round neckline look awkward on her, Karane thought. And while she didn't have very much on top, she had wide hips and toned legs, creating a pear-shaped area of physical bulk.

She frowned at her reflection.

The blue dress didn't look good on her, she thought in her head. She was ugly. This is why pants were always the best option, pants never failed you.

She sighed and was about to take the dress off, when Zelda knocked on her door and told her through it, "Hey, he's just waking up and is about to have some breakfast, you better hurry!"

Karane had asked Zelda to help her spy so that she could get her timing just right. She flushed, there was no time ti change now. She had to go in the dress, much to her own chagrin.

Karane swallowed her pride and grabbed the bunch of carnations she had invested in, then headed out the door.

Her face was flushing as she walked as fast as possible out of the Academy, avoiding eye contact with anyone, instead keeping her gaze at her swiftly moving feet. As she marched outside, she could feel the gazes of others falling upon her, which didn't help.

What made it worse was that every time a wind blew, her skirt tried to fly upwards, attempting to take flight like a Loftwing. This resulted in Karane having to violently reign it in in a fluster of embarrassment and haste. She ended up tightly gripping the skirt on either side to keep it from flying everywhere.

She was crossing the bridge now, and her stomach was dropping because she really wished she had worn pants. She should've just changed really fast before leaving her room, she thought, it would have been better.

But there really WAS no time for that now, as she was standing outside his door, flowers in hand and one hand on the skirt so it wouldn't embarrass her even more than it already had. She forced down her lack of confidence and faked a front of smiling, because this was how she had planned it. She had been planning this for an entire month now, she couldn't back down because of the dress.

Time fell into slow motion when he walked out the door in uniform, prepared to go out on his usual back-to-back patrol shift. But as he turned, he saw her and froze in his steps, baffled and surprised.

"Neither of us have patrol today," she interjected before Pipit could even ask. "So I took this opportunity to ask you on a real date," she finished jutting her hand out, offering him the cheesy gift of flowers.

He still seemed shocked. It was because of the dress. Karane's face was flushing even more, because if his reaction to her in a dress was this adverse, then she regretted even keeping it in her closet.

But then his own face was getting pink, and she had no idea why.

"Well… say something?" Karane pleaded.

Pipit's answer came in one of his freckled grins before he hugged her around her dress-defined waist and spun them both in a circle. Karane's feet lifted off the ground and the skirt went swishing and swirling in her wake.

They both burst out into laughter as they slowed and stopped, feet returning to the ground.

"You look beautiful," Pipit told her.

And Karane was inclined to believe him.

* * *

**Happiness is a Cup of Coco**

Winter in Skyloft was a beautiful, bitterly cold thing. The snow fell early and stayed thick throughout. It came in thick and sudden. Usually, everyone knew it was winter when they woke up one morning and the snow was suddenly there.

It was Karane's favorite time of the year, because she would wake up one morning and see outside her window, a blanket of white and ice all across the island.

It was perfection.

As a kid, she'd eat the cookies her mother baked and drink nothing but hot coco. She'd play with the other kids in the snow and have snow ball wars with the, and try to ice skate on the lake.

Even when she was older, not much changed. This year, when the snow fell, she shot out of bed and scurried down to the Academy kitchen and brewed as big a pot of hot coco as she could. It was still only about 6AM, but now was the perfect time.

Once the hot pot was complete, she scurried back upstairs and began to bundle up. Her Knights uniform was actually one of the warmest things, and she'd need it for patrol later anyway, so she strapped all her gear on as fast as possible and added in her blue scarf and her cream colored cloak.

She could still see from her window that white brilliance, even more of it falling from the sky as she looked.

Karane let out a small giggle as she, now wrapped up, she bolted outside into the thick cold of the snow. Kicking up flakes as she walked, Karane laughed at the cold, her breath creating plumes of heat.

Winter was her favorite season, to be sure.

Karane eagerly ran down the hill and across the bridge before whistling in the window of Pipit's house. She knew that knocking would incur Mallara's wrath, so this was a slightly subtler way to get his attention.

Soon enough, her sleepy boyfriend shuffled out. He had only been off duty for an hour. He came outside with his blanket wrapped around him, bags heavy under his eyes.

She grinned and handed him a cup of coco and kissed his speckled cheek.

"Happy winter."

* * *

**Brave New World**

The Surface was so big and vast and unfamiliar, that it was startling to see. Just one third of it was bigger than all of Skyloft put together, and the monsters that existed there were so much stronger than those in the sky.

The sky was safe, the surface was not.

The first time Karane went to the surface, she had gone in a group. It felt better when she wasn't alone, because everyone was laughing and happy and exploring.

Patrols, on the other hand, were solitary and silent.

Sometimes she enjoyed it.

Sometimes she didn't.

But there was always the nagging in the back of her mind, telling her constantly that she wasn't safe here. That the surface wasn't safe. Not for her, not for anybody.

So everyday, she'd report to her patrol on time.

Everyday she'd descend through the layer of protective clouds.

And everyday she'd remember.

The surface wasn't safe.

* * *

**Too Easy**

Karane knew that Pipit was a jealous man. He all too easily got his feathers ruffled whenever she was around other males, even if it was a mutual friend or someone he knew she disliked.

It was just too easy sometimes, to get under his skin with it. Though he denied up and down that he was jealous. He claimed that it didn't bother him, but Karane knew otherwise. By the way he sometimes clung to her and simple whispers of the word "mine," she knew how possessive he could be, and how much her interaction with other men bothered him.

Sometimes people would ask her why she teased him like that, and she always answered "For fun."

But in reality, his jealousy was a comfort to her.

Karane had never thought she was attractive, and it wasn't until she started dating Pipit that she slowly began to believe that maybe she was, if only a little bit.

But his jealousy was evidence that he thought she was beautiful, and pretty, and sexy, and any other adjective that Karane usually never associated with herself. His jealousy was solid proof that Pipit picked her. Above Peatrice, above Orielle, above Kina, above Zelda, he loved her instead.

So yes, she teased him and she prodded at what bothered him the most. She did it because, when he pulled her into an iron embrace, holding her so tightly against him that her feet were lifted above the ground, she knew that no matter how jealous he was around other men, and no matter how insecure she was about her appearance, they were still there together.

So even though it was Pipit who was outwardly jealous, it was Karane who got inward comfort from it and would whisper back to him, "Yours~"

* * *

**Scruffy**

"You're getting scruffy," she commented with a smirk. "You should shave."

"Aw c'mon, don't ladies usually like a little bit of scruff?" he chuckled at her comment. Her beaky nose was hidden deep in a book while they were having this conversation one evening.

"Not me," she reminded him, "It hides your freckles."

"Alright, I'll shave in the morning," he conceded.

"If you want to spend the night you'll go downstairs to the bathroom and shave now," Karane refuted with much sass.

Pipit didn't say anything for a moment, he just looked at her as she flipped a page of her book.

"B…. But…." he almost began. Then he got up off the foot of her bed with a sigh and went downstairs.

Now alone in her room, Karane snickered to herself. One way or another, she always got her way. But, she would be sure to reward Pipit for his obedience this evening, it was only fair.

She changed out of her uniform for the evening and decided to opt for her coolest bedclothes, considering it was late spring and the night was warm.

Pipit would be pleasantly surprised to find that shaving upon request equated to a bra and linen shorts for pajamas.

* * *

**The Waste**

It was against her usual routine, but Karane had been assigned patrol in Lanayru desert. Normally, she got some section of the Woods, or the base of Mr. Eldin. This was completely unexpected.

As she landed, her Loftwing Hatchet scooping back upwards to return home, Karane felt a shiver run up her spine.

Everything here was orange and yellow and dead. Tumbleweeds roamed the sandy wasteland and she could hear the far off howls of hostile creatures.

Karane had always been skeptical and wary of the surface, and rightfully so. It was still a dangerous place, but most of the time she dealt with common keese infestations or a lava flood. The desert on the other hand, was the embodiment of all that was uncertain about this land.

It was vast and vicious and everything here had died. Everything that had once lived and thrived was gone, lost to time and sand.

She didn't like the desert.

Karane took only a few steps before she hear another roar in the unforeseen distance. She could barely tell how far ahead of he it was, or maybe it was stalking her from behind.

She felt fear growing in her gut and she froze in her steps.

Then, there was a nudge at her back, and she screamed bloody murder, whirling around, hand on the hilt of her blade.

And she came fact to face with Hatchet.

Her Loftwing had come back, sensing his person's distress. His big black eyes stared at her and his head cocked to one side. He was large and fluffy with pale peachy feathers, wings tipped in dark olive green and blue. He once again nudged her with his huge beak, closing his eyes and pressing his head against her bosom.

Karane's arms went around the loyal bird and she smiled, keeping her sword sheathed.

"You scared me half to death, Hatchet," she muttered. "Good boy."

* * *

**Morning**

Tangled around their feet was a bundle of white cotton. Most of it was hanging off the bed, only a small bit still remained braided between their feet.

The sun shone softly through the window, a small set of curtains were the only meager things keeping the unwanted sunlight out.

The air was warm enough that they hadn't need blankets when they fell asleep that night, the warmth they got from each other sufficed.

His head was nuzzled under her chin, resting on her collar bone. Her arms were wrapped around his shoulders, his entwined around her waist. Their legs were mish-mashed together in an alternating fashion, the bedsheets at their feet.

Karane's eyes opened first and she smiled in mild reverie. She looked down at the head of messy brown hair and whispered, "Good morning."

* * *

**Music and Songs**

The harp was a traditional instrument in Skyloft. Zelda knew how to play it well, and many of the other girls had been taught its basics. Her mother had attempted teaching Karane, but she was a child who enjoyed mud and bugs, she had broken the harp.

She didn't take to singing either. That was Kina's specialty. Not that Karane even bothered to care, as kid she was proud by having the biggest collection rocks and being the record holder of the most skips on a stone in the lake. She even had the second biggest bug collection, Strich's was the biggest. So who cared if she couldn't sing?

Later in life, not having these talents made her question her own attributes a bit. As a teenager, she began to wish that she knew how to do those pretty things. Maybe Pipit would like her more if she could sing or play the harp.

But no, Karane was considered course and unpolished in the eye of women. And while it bothered her a little bit, she took solace in her masculine skills.

Maybe she couldn't sing and maybe she couldn't play the harp. But when Karane took up the long sword, she became a fatally graceful dancer.

Agile twirls and turns were used to her advantage in battle, and her lithe body was put to use. She didn't fight like the men, because she was not a man. She didn't have the same upper body strength to drive home one-hit kills. But she had the speed and flexibility to make up for it. The only times Karane was completely feminine, was with her sword.

She wrote poetry with her blade.

* * *

**Just a Little Bit of Flexibility**

Being the agility driven fighter that she was, Karane's work out and training routines had always required vigorous stretching before and after. She had to stay limber and loose, otherwise she'd fail at her job.

All throughout the years at the Academy, she had stretched in the morning when she got up, then again before physical training, followed by after physical training, then she'd do it again after her bath, when her muscles were warm and relaxed. Finally, she concluded with a stretching routine at night before bed.

Because of this strict routine, Karane was flexible and quick. In fact, she could run faster than most other boys, and she KNEW she was more flexible than any of them.

But one day her routine was interrupted by a lewd comment thrown her way in the middle of her stretching. She was folding herself forward, extending her hands to rest easily on the ground, palms flat, with her torso folded over her legs tightly.

"Check out the ass~" was the snickered comment. "Who'da known the ginger had one?"

It was coming from another Sky Knight, one of the regular patrolmen who had graduated several years before Karane.

She bolted right up out of her stretch and flung herself around, embarrassment and fury flying with her. She lifted her fist, ready to race across the training ground and slog his nose in.

But she was beat to it by a passing by Knight in yellow who struck even harder than she ever could, sending the idiot to the ground hard, his nose already bloody and broken.

"Don't you _ever _talk about her like that!" Pipit snarled. Karane had never felt prouder and she smirked at him, one hand on her hip.

The very next day, they had been called into Eagus's office to explain why there were blood splatters on his grounds.

"Care to explain to me, soldiers, why I'm hearing reports of needless assault and battery? Particularly you, Pipit?" he demanded.

"Sir, there was another Knight making inappropriate remarks towards Lady Karane, sir," Pipit responded, in the military formal report way. Both he and Karane were at full attention. Eagus respected those who respected him.

"Is this true, Lady Karane?"

"Sir, yes, sir," she nodded. "I was stretching for training and he sexually harassed me, sir."

"I see," Eagus pondered, scratching his beard. "Alright… Sir Pipit, why did you feel the need to step in?"

"Sir, I knew if I didn't that Lady Karane would have, and I didn't want the offending officer to die, sir."

"I suppose that's acceptable."

* * *

**Flying and Falling and being Completely Still**

On a normal, good night, Karane dreamt that she was flying. Hatchet was her wings, and they flew across Skyloft and beyond, exploring new islands that nobody but they knew about. It was blissful and calm and Karane liked those dreams. She woke from those dreams with a smile and a sigh before she got up for the day and enjoyed her life.

But sometimes, she would dream that she was flying with her father, into the storm which had taken his life. She would dream that suddenly, there was nothing beneath her. That she was falling, fast and painful against the wind. She could see her father below her, falling to his death, and she was just trying to catch up to him in hopes of getting one last hug before they were both gone. Karane woke up from those dreams with screams and tears.

But perhaps the most frightening of Karane's dreams were the ones when she was floating in a cloud of nothingness. For miles and miles, everything was just grey, and she couldn't move or speak, only look. Those were the dreams that made her feel insignificant and small. She woke from those dreams in a cold sweat and silent terror, her hand around her throat for fear of still being mute.

* * *

**Hide and Seek**

The report had been a shock to everyone. There was a bokoblin camp in upper Faron Woods. It seemed that they had managed to slip under the radar by hiding in the trees, and were now planning a raid on the Skyloft settlement.

Karane had been assigned to the attack squad. She had been told that it was like playing hide-and-seek.

But in this game, the stakes were higher. Nobody knew how big the monster horde was, and it would be too easy for things to go wrong. In this deadly game, to be seen was to die.

As she stalked through the bushes and trees, as silent as the grave, Karane saw it.

A campfire.

She knew that no Sky Knight would dare light a fire during this mission. She cupped her hands to her lips and made the tweeting call of the small birds, signalling her team members.

She was only a few yards away and a smirk graced her lips.

"Found you."

* * *

**Whisper**

It had only been a whisper. So small and so quiet that she questioned if she had actually heard the words at all.

It was one of those rosy mornings before dawn when Pipit used her room as a fast nap before classes, just before graduation.

She had been fast asleep when she heard him come in. It wasn't loud, but it was enough to make her half-conscious. She groggily muttered nothing and rolled over, her back to him.

He must have been taking his usual seat against her wall when he said it.

"I love you."

Karane's eyes went wide. Had she been hearing things? He had never really said it before. Neither of them had. Not really. They said it jokingly, in a way which poked fun… but never sincerely.

She sat up, leaning over her legs to look at him.

"What did you say?" she asked.

He looked up at her tiredly. "I… I love you."

They just looked at each other for a while.

"Yeah well I love you too, now go to sleep," Karane announced, rolling back over and pulling her blankets up.

But she never went back to sleep, she was too busy smiling.


	4. Motherhood I

**Swaddling**

It was traditional in Skyloft for babies to be swaddled in white. White was the most holy of colors, and infants needed the Goddess's blessings most of all, so it was natural that babies were swaddled in white, despite how easily it stained.

She had been swaddled in white too, as she was often told.

"Oh your mother and father were so happy to have you! And such a little vision, all wrapped up in white with that flaming hair of yours peeking out," was the most common story told by the members of the previous generation.

She remembered seeing Kukiel as a baby, swaddled in white and gurgling like babies so often did. Karane had been twelve at the time.

Everyone in Skyloft had been swaddled in white, it was tradition.

But now, with the surface being open and the Goddess reincarnated among man, things were changing. Settlements were being set up around the Goddess Temple and Sealed Grounds below. Old traditions and beliefs were changing fast, with new ones being developed to replace them.

So at the age of 25, when Karane was musing in her mind about the tradition of swaddling in white, she smirked in triumph. She had yet to discuss her musings about white swaddling with anyone yet, nor the reasons for thinking in such a fashion, but all by herself, on a hill in the woods, she had come up with her own solution.

"I'll just get Zelda to be the godmother. That's all the Goddess blessings you'll ever need," chuckled, a hand on her ever-so-slightly rounder abdomen.

* * *

**Replacements**

Karane had always known that Mallara didn't approve of her. She didn't play the traditional woman's role in the community, and Karane understood that it was a difficult thing for the woman to come to terms with. Mallara probably had an idea in her head of the kind of woman Pipit would marry, and Karane rarely matched up with anyone's idea of a woman.

When they just started dating, Mallara had been judgmental and skeptical, always treating their relationship like a temporary thing. Karane accepted it as Mallara keeping her distance until things became more permanent.

When they were engaged, though, Mallara told Karane to her face that she wished her son would leave her. That had stung deep. More deeply than she ever let on. Karane only hoped that Pipit wouldn't notice, because she knew how close he was with his mother. He deserved to still be close with her. He still had his mother, Karane wouldn't take that away from him.

When they were married, Karane shuddered to realize that Mallara had just gotten herself the title of "Mother-in-Law." It was an unpleasant thought for Karane, because the last time she had anyone in her lift beginning with "mother," it had not ended well for either of them emotionally. Karane tried to be polite and nice to Mallara, but that woman's efforts to separate Pipit from her "loose morals and brainwashing" only got worse. One day, when Pipit wasn't there, Karane had called her "mother-in-law dearest" sarcastically. Mallara's response had been: "You're not my daughter. In law or otherwise."

It became a game of war when Karane got pregnant. Now, they both seethed openly at one another and slapped down as many insults as possible, whether or not Pipit was there. They were always battling to win over Pipit's favor and get the better of the other. A few times, Mallara had come to their house, for the sole purpose of commenting on Karane's cooking or knitting, or worst of all, catch her in a fit of hormonal sobbing. Pipit was usually on patrol when it happened, which usually prompted Karane to flaunt her increasing belly at Mallara whenever she could, lewd comments about its origins in tow.

When Karane thought it, she became bitter and angry at her in-law. Karane had so hoped, in the beginning, that she and Mallara would get along. That maybe, just maybe, all three of them (Pipit, his mother, and herself) could have a happy, complete family again. Secretly and selfishly, Karane wished for Mallara to be like a second mother to replace the one she had lost so many years ago. The one who had disregarded her existence and had not been alive to really help her through her most difficult times. Karane WANTED a mother, someone to tell her on her wedding day that she looked beautiful and give her a hand-me-down piece of jewelry to wear. Karane had had to do that herself. She WANTED a mother to tell her all about the trials of pregnancy and relate to her issues with it, telling stories about "When I was pregnant with you…" Instead, Henya agreed to help her as a midwife, and she had mostly done it all on her own. Karane WANTED a mother to say "I'm so proud," and mean it in every sense.

Instead, she had Mallara whose catch phrase was "That's disappointing." It was applied to everything she did, be it her job, her hair, her clothes, her cooking, her cleaning, and even the way she held her own baby.

So Karane felt more and more bitter and angry at Mallara, her "replacement mother," with every passing month. It would take Karane almost ten years for her to realize that Mallara had indeed taken the place her own mother used to fill. Mallara's disapproval had fitted nicely beside the spot of her own mother's neglect, which made it all too easy for Karane to channel her long unexpressed hatred and anger at her husband's mother, instead of her own.

It took her nearly ten years of fighting and vindictive tricks to figure it out, and almost eleven to go apologize and try to make amends.

* * *

**Steel**

He had promised her over and over that it wouldn't happen to him. He had vowed that he would always come home and never disappear into the sky like their fathers had.

But he never promised her how he would come home.

The professors both told her, "He's in a coma… He might wake up, but he might not." That was how she got the news.

She had to be careful not to become her mother in that moment, so Karane had nodded stiffly to them and numbly went back to making dinner for her family. She was asked by small voices where Daddy was, and she had answered in an empty voice, "He's taking a nap at the Academy."

After she had tucked everyone who needed it back into bed, she crept out into the night with her cloak and went to his medical room. There he was, just lying there. He really did look like he was sleeping.

Mallara had already arrived, and she looked at her with bitter, tear stained eyes.

"I blame you." Was all that was said.

She mechanically went to sit in the chair next to his bed and she didn't move until the sun had risen.

For the first week of it, she was going through the motions of life. She made meals, sent tiny feet to school, and visited the room where he lay every free moment she had.

She was dismissed from work indefinitely out of courtesy. Of course she was, she thought.

Whenever Mallara was there, she wouldn't speak to her. Neither of them spoke to one another. Mallara blamed her silently, and she just sat there wordlessly, back rigid and eyes glazed over.

By the end of the second week, the laundry gossip was about her demeanor. "You know she's barely even told her children what happened! Its just not fair to those kids. She won't let them even see him!" "And have you seen the way she acts? Like she's looking through everything and everyone! Its creepy, I tell you." "I hear his mother is the one feeding him every day, not her." "She's heartless, I tell you. Her blood's as cold as steel."

Karane hadn't found it in her to care. Because no matter what they said about her, she was still taking care of her kids. She made them food, she kissed them good night, and she still said "I love you" to them daily. No matter what they said, she was there with him every day, stretching his legs for him and keeping him warm in the winter.

By week three, Henya came over to her house to sit her down and tell her, "Honey… Its been so long. There is… little hope at this point."

"Are you here to tell me to kill him?" Karane asked, no emotion or tells in her expression. It was startling how cold the words came out.

"No… I just don't want you to get your hopes up."

But by week four, she had lost her hopes. They had never been up, but at least they had been there. When she went to see him then, she had once again found Mallara there first. Knitting him new socks.

"I want to be alone," she commanded in that icy voice. Mallara would have protested, had the increasing steel of Karane's actions not begun to frighten the older woman.

When the room was empty, Karane sat down beside him and for the first time since she had been told of his condition, she looked at his face.

Serene, sleeping, and silent.

His skin had grown gaunt and pale, her freckles seeming much darker in comparison. He needed a shave, but he seemed normal. He seemed like he was at home, in their bed, and that he would be waking up for patrol duty any moment.

But he never did. He just laid there, doing nothing.

It was week four, and Karane had lost all her hopes of ever getting him back.

She finally broke down.

Her face scrunched into ugly, repressed sobs that racked her body and echoed down the halls. She fell over him, hiding her face in his arm. She was unable to hold herself up anymore at this point. Her back was tired of holding her up when her heart had been so heavy. Her mind was tired of functioning when the rest of her was so empty.

She wailed and keened without restraint, soaking the blankets that covered his hand and her own sleeves in the process. Nobody dared intrude, because it was not a pretty scene.

These kinds of tears weren't pretty. They weren't cute, or even sympathetic. They were the tears that could only stand to be shed alone, when everything had been lost.

"Whyyy-yyyy?" she managed to scream against his hand. "You promised me Pipit! You promised me you wouldn't leave me alone!"

By week five, she had gone back to her resolve of steel and frost. The gossip had only gotten worse after her outburst, though. Apparently, Mallara nor the professors felt like telling anyone. Karane respected them just a little bit more.

Week six was the Winter Holy Day, and she had made sure to get presents for the kids, even if money was getting tight now, with no parent working. The only thing they wanted, though, was for theie father to wake back up.

On the seventh week, Karane was wondering if she should stop going all together. It was a hopeless venture that only left her feeling more and more empty every time she went to see him. Yet, like clockwork, she went everyday.

Until not like clockwork, his fingers began to twitch.

And the professors rushed in to tend, she was shooed from the room, a cup of coffee in her hands, shaking so hard that it had nearly all spilled on the floor.

Then she could see through the doorway that his eyes were open.

The coffee crashed and Owlan ended up being flung against the wall with an 'oof.'

He was groggy and confused, but his blue eyes were there, looking at her.

She slapped him across the face the hardest she had ever hit anyone.

"_Idiot_," she hissed.


	5. Childhood II

**A Waste of Milk**

"Don't blow bubbles in your drink, honey," her mother scolded her fairly frequently at dinner. "You're going to waste the milk!"

Karane rolled her eyes at her mother. She always said that, but Karane never found herself running low on milk and then wishing she had more. There was nothing about it that made her see the waste.

What wasn't helping was her father leaning over and whispering in her ear, "Its never a waste if it makes you happy, princess." Then, he always ruffled her red locks, the same locks that matched his own.

Karane grinned up at her father and continued to blow bubbles in her milk, while her mother shot glares at her father. But, like usual, her father was fantastic at making frowns turn upside down, and he would always pull her mother into his lap, wrap his arms around her waist and kiss her neck and face until Herine's glares dissipated into laughter.

Karane would begin to laugh at them, then, and her mother would look back at her daughter with a grin and say, "What are you looking at? Go back to blowing bubbles in your milk."

* * *

**Mia**

It was well known that remlits were weird. During the day, they purred and cooed and mewled. They were loveable and friendly during the day.

At night, they were demonic. They growled and hissed and launched themselves at your face, trying to rip your very soul out through sheer physical force.

Until her father taught her how to deal with remlits, Karane had been deathly afraid of them. At the tender young age of four, she had screamed and sobbed whenever she saw one, and that was even during the day time!

It had taken two years for her father to help her get over that kind of childhood terror.

"Look, princess," he had instructed her, "If a remlit comes after you, just grab it like this at the scruff of the neck, see?" He demonstrated on one of the neighbor's pets. "And look, they go completely still!"

It had been a great comfort to know that you could so easily paralyze those nasty creatures, day time or night.

This was even more of a comfort by the time Karane was in the Academy. At that point, sneaking out of her dorm at night became easy. After all, her father had taught her how to handle remlits! After two weeks, Mia stopped going after Karane at night. The feline creature just knew that she would not be winning this fight.

* * *

**Ferocious**

"RARRGH!" came the rumbled deep snarl of the beast. A shiver went down Karane's spine. She was crouching down in the shadows, keeping herself carefully hidden from the pursuing beast.

She gulped as silently as possible and clutched her hands at her sides, grasping onto the green of her clothes. She could hear it getting closer now…

There was a thump in each step and a hissing as it paused, looking for her and trying to catch her scent. She could hear it, so close… so dangerously close.

She was unarmed, in a cruel trick of fate. When the hunt began, she had bee brandishing her mighty weapon, but now, with the roles having quickly reversed, she was defenseless in the shadows.

At least it couldn't see her, right? She had been so very very cautious in finding her cover. She had to find the optimum location to wait and listen, praying it did not find her and praying that she would get out of here unscathed.

At least it couldn't see her, she repeated to herself as another howl echoed nearby. Her gut clenched and she could feel her doom getting closer and closer.

Closer.

Closer.

Closer.

Then, before she could run to avoid, it pounced and she was in its claws, its jaws at her belly and its growling rumbling from its ruthless jowls.

"I'VE GOT YOU NOW! You can never escape the TICKLE MONSTER!"

Karane was defenseless as the high pitched squealing and giggles rang from her mouth, squiggling and squirming in her father's mighty arms.

* * *

**Unorthodox Methods**

Mourning blacks were always taken when a loved one or family member died. The dark shade was worn for the time appropriate for the person who died, then they could be discarded and regular life could begin again.

During times of mourning, those in mourning were forbidden from dancing or partaking in celebrations. They were not supposed to wear anything but black, and weddings were never held during the mourning period. If births could be avoided, they were.

And, most strictly of all, everyone attending the funeral wore black, no mater if you were mourning or not.

As a child, though, Karane decided to boycott her mother's funeral. Left unsupervised, she hadn't gussied up in her best dress. She hadn't even worn black.

She had worn pants with patches on the knees and a bright yellow tunic. But, just before the funeral started, she thought that yes, it was nice to be in black.

So she had covered herself head to toe in goopy black mud.

When she walked into the ceremony, head held high and stride wide and dignified, the attending Skyloftians had all been a clammer of gasps and exclamations. After all, not only had Karane arrived in the middle of the sermon, but she had arrived covered in mud.

ALL of her covered in mud.

As much silence as possible was held until the prayer was over and the service was considered over. Then, Owlan and Hornwell had dragged her aside and begun to lecture the girl on respect and manners and cleanliness.

"Would your mother appreciate this kind of behavior, young lady?"

"What kind of stunt do you think you're pulling? Do you think this is funny?"

Karane had taken the brunt of this lecture, and then Henya had forced her into a tub and had spent hours scraping the mud off of her skin and out of her hair.

By the time Karane was clean and forced into a proper black dress, the "casual get together" part of the funeral day was in full swing. Adults of all kinds were at the empty house of her family, leaving food for the new orphan and supplies she might need before the house was either sold or destroyed. Karane hadn't decided which option she liked better, and it was HER decision after all, right?

When she was shoved back into the mourning room, hair still wet and sticking to her neck, she was scowling and her face was pink in rage.

She had hated her mother for dying and she hated that the adults were forcing her to be sad. She refused to be sad about it.

But she was made to stand there and listen to apology after apology and receive casserole after casserole. She wouldn't eat any of them, she'd instead throw chunks of them at frogs.

Then there was that stupid neighbor boy again, in black too. Like everyone else.

"Sorry about your mom."

"I'm not," she snapped, arms crossed while the adults were finally leaving her alone.

"Why?"

"Because I hate her. I'm glad she's gone. I don't need her."

"But she's your mom! I don't know what I'd do without my mom…" he admitted, trying to be considerate.

"You're a wimp," Karane told him. "My mom deserved to die. She didn't care about me," Karane growled under her breath. "If she had, she wouldn't have died."

"I thought you said you wanted her to die?"

"Shut up, you don't know what I said." was her most "eloquent" retort.

After that, the conversation stopped, because it was useless. Unlike when her father had died, Karane didn't feel like she was falling into a ditch. This time, she felt like she had found the bottom of it, met with a short stop and a banging in her ear.

But, nonetheless, that dumb neighbor boy, dressed in black like everyone else, held her hand until the ringing in her ears died down.

* * *

**Bang Crash**

She didn't like this silence in the house. She hated it even. Usually, quiet times were not something that bothered Karane, but this time she felt very very differently about it.

The house wasn't supposed to be silent.

The house wasn't supposed to be empty.

The house wasn't supposed to suck the happiness out of her.

So, sitting there in the thick silence that made her so furious, Karane swept her arm across the counter, bringing everything that had previously been there to the floor.

A symphony of clatters and crashes sounded after her, the silence being killed.

But she couldn't stop there, or the silence would come back. She had to keep the sound going.

Before the last piece of baked clay could reach the ground and end the orchestra of fragility, Karane pulled out a drawer from its socket, sending it and the contents flying into room and coming down with a bang and some metallic ringing. She didn't stop there. Soon, she was pulling out all the drawers, creating a staccato of silverware.

She moved to the living room and threw pillows at the shelves. The percussion of cotton thuds led to more breakable high-pitched crashes. She pulled what few books were there off of the shelves too and began to fling them about, letting the paper pages whistle and warble in the air.

She went into her own room and began to throw everything around. All her trinkets and personal belongings were sent to the wall or the floor. Some of them breaking into crashes of her rage, others becoming the deep booms of the bass to give the symphony she conducted a depth.

Lastly, she went into their room and broke the glass vase. She broke the drawers in there too, and threw the shiny bits about, sending the beads to the floor in small clicks.

In her gusto, Karane had not realized that she had run herself out of things to destroy. She had run out of sound to make. And she was alone again in the silence. She could never really keep it at bay, because silence always followed sound. It would always come back.

Alone in that house, where her mother had died and her father had never come home, she sat on the floor in the silence.

The silence was deafening in the ears of a nine-year-old.

* * *

**Good Vibrations**

Her father had been a large man. He had had broad shoulders and strong airs that had been great to play with. When she was tiny, Karane used to use her father as her own personal jungle gym. She could climb all over him when he was home from patrol and he would never say a word against her antics, unlike mom.

Stroark had been, in her eyes, the perfect daddy. He approved of her silly misbehavior when her mother hadn't, and he had always, ALWAYS, played with her when mother said it was time for bed, or time for a nap, or time for a bath.

But the best part about him, was his laughter. When her big burly father laughed, his whole chest vibrated with the rumble. Karane loved it when he laughed. He was always so happy.

The best laughs, were the ones when he was hugging her. Then, his deep reverberations of joy were tangible. Karane would find herself laughing along and burying her then little nose into his tunic and just feeling the vibrations of his laughter. It was one of the most comforting things to her when she was little.

Stroark's laughter had made happy moments in the family even better, had made her happy when she found one of her collected bugs had been squished, and had even made her childhood fears dissipate into bravery.

A simple chuckle from her father had been all it ever took to make Karane feel loved.


	6. Teenhood II

**Into the World**

Every year, the Loftwings would mate, but only a few of them produced eggs, and then even fewer pairs hatched. In that respect, it kept the population of birds to humans about equal. Usually, there were some people who volunteered to assist with the hatching, usually those whose birds had mated.

Then, there were those who got it as a punishment.

Karane's bird has never been graceful. He had never been quiet. And he had never been smart. The pinnacle of Hatchet's dumbness, appeared one year when he broke through Parrow's window with his foot, trying to make the top of their house a nest. He had almost taken the whole roof off in the process. The best part was…

Hatchet didn't have a mate, much less an egg.

Because of her slovenly bird's behavior, Karane had been assigned to help watch the eggs that HAD been produced that year, considering Parrow's Loftwing was one of the expecting parents. She had agreed because she couldn't afford the charges it would take to fix the house.

So, for several months during her junior year in the Academy, Karane had long shifts watching the eggs. She kept them warm, she fed the parents, and she made sure to keep monsters away from the nesting grounds. It was tedious work, but it wasn't too bad. It could be worse, right?

Her days were long and mundane, until the day that the first egg hatched.

The parent Loftwings were fluttering about and squawking in excitement and apprehension. The egg, as tall as Karane's calf, was wiggling and a small crack was poking through it at the top. Seeing the egg begin to roll to the side, Karane reached out to steady it.

"There you, little guy," she encouraged. "Come on… you can do it."

The little bird struggled and fought the confines of its shell, chipping away the pieces bit by bit until its featherless head was poking out. It began to chirp and screech, the parents were crouching beside it, cooing to their new baby.

Soon enough ,it had fought its way out and was settling into the nest, the mother coming to lay over it and keep the delicate infant warm.

It was skinny and gangly, with a beak that was too big and eyes that looked to be bulging. It had absolutely no feathers, and it was pink with exposed skin.

Despite how awkward and ugly the baby loftwing was, Karane smiled at it, her hands a bit slimy with the remnants of the hatchling's yolk, and she said, "Welcome to the world, little guy."

* * *

**Late Bloomer**

The term was something Karane had hated when she was young. She'd sometimes hear the laundry mothers refer to her as it. As a "late bloomer." All because when she was 12, she was still romping around in pants and hadn't exactly developed yet.

At age twelve, those gossipy women could already tell that Karane was a late bloomer, but that did nothing to help her waiting to bloom. Peatrice was her own age, and she had started to develop curves that year. Sure, it wasn't much, but by the time they were both 14, Peatrice had breasts. Karane did not.

Of course, then by the time Karane WAS 14, the younger girls had started to "bloom." Kina had better hips than any girl on the island, by the young age of 13, and even Zelda had started to grow into a more womanly figure. Karane, on the other hand, was labeled "late bloomer."

She'd sigh and grumble to herself in that year. She was 14, one of the oldest girls on the island, she should be getting her own hips and breasts too, right? While a few years ago, it had never mattered, now it did. Now, there was an attractiveness that came with blooming, and there were boys who knew that. Now, there was a social pride that came with having breasts.

At the same time, there was now something inherently wrong with not having them.

Karane had considered stuffing a bra at some point, but she never went through with it. The paranoid fear that someone would find out kept her from doing that, but the jealousy and envy of the other girls was ever present.

They had petite waist lines and the dainty early signs of womanhood, and Karane had a sword. Not that she didn't want the sword, mind you, but she was hoping to get both if she was lucky.

When she was 15, in her second year at the Academy, she finally started to grow a pair. They quickly stopped, leaving Karane with the ever so slight notion that they didn't actually exist at all. After all, when she was in training garb, loose and flexible, they were barely visible. They'd stay that way for a very long time too.

But when she was an adult, still garnering a set of never-to-be-described-as-buxom breasts, she wasn't jealous of her female peers anymore. Because Karane had been lucky enough to find someone that made her, and her breasts, feel like they were the envy of the town.

* * *

**Jumping**

It was almost embarrassing the way she had started jumping. Luckily the impulse hadn't started until AFTER other people had left the room, but she had begun to jump none the less.

Pipit stared at her, his face blushing and her eyes bewildered. Admittedly, for him, it was probably a very confusing sight.

"Is… Its this a good thing?" he hesitantly asked. Karane's only answer was more tiny jumping, making a small circle where she stood.

She couldn't help it! She was blissfully happy. Elated, even! Outside the room, she could hear footsteps walking away and she could hear the whining of a pudgy underclassman. But she couldn't care less.

Pipit asked again, "Rane? Is this jumping a good thing or not? You're scaring me…"

This time her answer was still jumping, but this time, she jumped into him, tightly enclosing him in a hug— lifting up her feet in the process and forcing him to hold her too, lest they both go falling.

She was happy, blissful, elated, and it was because, at the last moment, Pipit had shown up and asked her to choose him instead. And of course, she had said…

"Yes!"

* * *

**Passing On**

Her father had died at night. In the middle of a storm. that was all she was ever told as a child, because no one would dare tell a 7 year old that her father's neck had snapped when he was thrown from his bird, into an island, with impact great enough to kill him.

She had come to terms with it in her own time.

Her mother had died at night too. Finally giving in to her own self-pity and malnutrition. Karane had been unlucky enough to come upon her when bringing in breakfast for the day. But she hadn't been disturbed by it. In a way it was peaceful. Her mother had finally gone to sleep long enough to join her father.

It became natural for her to assume that deaths happened at night. When everything was dark and nobody could see it happen.

Yet, there was one death that happened during the day. One that had shook the community at its very core, because it was an all too close reminder of how fragile their lives were in the sky.

It hadn't even sunk in really, when she saw it happen. It was at a great distance, so all that it appeared to be was just a small red streak falling through the sky. Simple as that. Like some kind of inanimate object in the stunt.

It wasn't until the crying from the crowd burst out that it really hit her. He had died. That man, one of her neighbors, one of the first Sky Knights, and her best friend's father, had just… died.

Unlike horrified spectators, her first instinct was not to scream or cry, it was to find Pipit and see if he was ok. They were not together in the crowd, he had been watching with his mother.

Karane saw Mallara, but no Pipit. The other knights and the Headmaster were with her, caring for the sobbing widow.

Karane moved on, not being well acquainted with Pipit's mother.

Through the gatherings of public mourning, Karane came to the conclusion that her friend was not here. He was not in the Academy halls, either, as further investigation concluded.

She'd find him on the roof, hiding with the bell. And without saying a word, she took his hand and sat beside him for hours.

Because death was not supposed to happen during the day where everyone could see and be haunted by it. It was suppose to happen at night.

* * *

**Twitterpated**

Spring was the time of the loftwings' mating rituals. The males would fluff up their feathers and sing warbling tunes to the females, in hopes of attracting a mate.

Some easily paired up with those they had mated with last year, and hardly any ritual was necessary. Others were new to the ritual and were awkward at it, finding a mate who more pitied their effort rather than was impressed by it.

Then there was the third kind of male, who was a veteran of the season yet had never had a mate.

As many had predicted, Hatchet was in the third category. In past years, he had fluffed himself and done dances and tried to belt out arias to the lady birds of the sky islands. One year, he had even tried to make a nest on Parrow's house just to show that he was suitable.

But he was a silly, neurotic mess of a bird, and he had had terrible luck with finding a female who would accept him.

Every year, though, Karane patted his head and told her friend encouraging words. "Don't worry, buddy, the right girl will be there this time."

For five years, though, there was no luck.

When Karane was 17, her bird having been of eligible mating age for almost six years now, she consulted the local "bird expert" on how to help her poor steed out. By now, Hatchet was getting visibly depressed. Every day he was returning from the perching rocks of the loftwings sans a lady love. The poor guy was dejected.

"Is there something I can do?" Karane asked Pipit one day, bringing her brunette friend out to Hatchet so he could see. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with him is there?"

"No, he's healthy," Pipit assured them both, giving Hatchet an impromptu and mild examination. The male loftwing wasn't too happy about that, but this was that boy person who was a friend, right? If his girl person trusted the boy person then it would be fine.

"So why can't he get a mate? Its unusual isn't it? Most other loftwings have started producing eggs and such…" Karane sighed, rubbing her eyes.

"Hmmmm…." Pipit pondered. Hatchet's black eyes switched between the two of them. He had no clue what was so concerning. In the bird's mind he thought, maybe amongst his constant rejections, he was dying. That made sense, nobody would mate with a dying male.

"I don't know what to tell ya, Rane. I think it might just take some time. There isn't much science to the mating rituals," Pipit shrugged.

Hatchet observed some strange looks that the boy person was giving his girl person. He fluffed up a bit and forced his way between them. That boy person was not allowed to go pursuing his girl person. She was HIS girl person! All boy persons needed to ask permission first.

After that, Karane just sighed at her bird, "You're a hopeless dope, you know that?" she told her bird. "I'm beginning to think that you'll never have any little baby loftwings."

Hatchet, in his mind, thought differently. After all, in the future, he would have hatchlings that belonged to him.

Ok, so they had come from his girl person's belly, but that was just semantics!

* * *

**Absent**

Karane had been absent from the Wing Ceremony that year. Not only had she been barred from participating, but she hadn't hadn't even been picked to play the Goddess. To her, there was no reason to show up for the damned thing. It would be degrading and insulting.

So she didn't go. Plain as pie.

The rest of Skyloft was in attendance, but she had opted to leave it before it even began. One hour before the big race was supposed to happen, Karane disappeared. She couldn't take the jealousy and anger and sorrow that was building inside her. She didn't want to be around people, and she certainly didn't feel emotionally stable enough to offer the support needed to Pipit, who was actually IN the race.

So she fled to the top of the waterfall, where nobody would be able to find her. Nobody would ever think to look there until the ceremony had already begun.

Her plan worked.

Nobody came to get her that day, and she didn't show back up until she felt good and ready that afternoon. Then, she had promptly stormed into Headmaster Gaebora's office and made her demands regarding her graduation and status as a knight in training.

Most of that day, for Karane, was spent trying to control her own anger at the injustice.

But for a little while, when the Wing Ceremony was actually happening, she had felt so much pride inside her that she almost forgot about being mad.

Because from the top of the waterfall, she had the perfect view of the race, and she saw the whole thing.

She watched Pipit win.

* * *

**Waking Up**

Karane was not usually up in time to experience the morning dew. She liked her sleep, and considering that she had day time patrol shifts, she usually wanted to sleep in.

Pipit, on the other hand, was a dew expert. It was always there when he was getting off his night shifts so he frequently had wet boots as he went to bed until afternoon.

But one day, when Pipit was sick and unable to go on night patrol because Karane wouldn't let him, she would experience this marvel known as morning dew.

Being a senior in the Academy, she was allowed to go on the night patrol, even if she wasn't experienced in it. After a very interesting shift that night, she was trekking up to her dorm in the early hours of the morning, absolutely exhausted.

But as she tried to take her short cuts through the grass, she was bombarded with dew. Trying to climb the stairs became a hassle because he boots were slick and wet, making her slip over herself.

Karane felt enraged with the substance by the time she made her way upstairs to her own room.

Pipit, ill in her bed, tried to lazily greet her. "Hi… how was patrol?"

"This is the work of demons!" she concluded, throwing her boots against the wall in a wet leathery heap.

* * *

**Those Awkward Years**

Most people's "awkward years" are defined by puberty and when exactly it hit for them. Given that puberty meant changing hormones, physical forms, and mental thought processes, it was understandable for a certain amount of awkwardness to occur.

Karane defined her "awkward years" with one specific incident.

It happened when she was 15, sitting in the back of class, next to Pipit. The tables which they all sat at were long enough that there was a good two feet between them where they sat, making it all too possible for Karane's mind to wander, sans consequences. Or, at least she thought so.

In the past year, her silent affections for her brunette best friend had been blossoming. She secretly longed for the chance to show him how she felt, yet never had the courage to ever actually do so. But her cowardice did not stop her day dreams from drifting into her mind during the more boring times of the day.

Today, as Professor Owlan went over the test that Karane already did well enough on, she zoned out into her own fantasy world. A world where chocolate ice cream was all that was ever served for lunch and where a certain freckled classmate brought her a single red rose everyday, to accompany his declarations of love.

As her mind wandered, so did her hand, and the little scrawlings of her name beside her began to appear in the margins of her notes. Hearts were soon to follow. Lastly, a small and poorly rendered doodle of that friend she adored so much.

"What're you drawing, Rane?" came the whisper of said friend, leaning over to she what she was up to.

Reality hit her in the face like a loftwing carrying a bag of bricks, and she slammed her notebook shut. Her ears went flaming red and she jolted her head around to Pipit.

"Nothing, stop looking over my shoulder!" she hissed back frantically.

He frowned at her and held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry…"

It was the defining moment of Karane's "awkward years."


	7. Adulthood II

**Quiet**

All was quiet, and all was calm. The soft breeze that surrounded Skyloft was gentle and soothing today. The sun was out, but not blazing to the point that it blinded. It was hindered by a few soft clouds, making everything serene and happy.

In the distance, the small kids of the main island could be heard squealing in peals of laughter, and there was the ever present rush of the waterfall. All of the sounds and feeling culminated into an effervescent lullaby today, making anyone who was not actively doing something want to just lay down and sleep.

Karane took in a deep, steady breath and smile out, her eyes closed. She sat in the grass of on small meadow on a tiny island just below Skyloft. She was close enough to hear the main island's sounds still, but far enough away not to be noticed.

She had taken off the chain mail and the armor, choosing instead to just relax and breath.

She had just gotten off shift for today and had decided it was the perfect weather to meditate for a bit and let herself loosen. Her instincts had been correct. She had been sitting here in the grass and flowers for almost an hour, just letting her mind go blank and let the world move around her.

It was one of those beautifully quiet moments of calm when everything in life became more clear.

Such as the fact that she was newly brandishing a modest ring on her left hand.

* * *

**Broken Things**

It wasn't often that Karane got hurt enough to be taking bed rest or spend any time hospitalized. In her younger years she had broken her right arm once, which made writing difficult for a time, but she had recovered.

This time, she was in a terrible pickle.

She had crashed, trying to land on the surface. But with Hatchet for a bird, that was never going to be easy, and given that it was only her third time going down there, things had not ended well. Eldin's sulfuric smoke had set off Hatchet's panic reflex, and he crashed them both into the side of the mountain, causing a rough and tumbled descent.

Once again, Karane had a broken arm, but luckily it was her left one this time. Hatchet, on the other hand, was having a worse time.

When Karane had finally been able to relocate her bird, she found him in a heap of his own feathers and limbs, with one of his legs not pointing the way it should. Fear and worry took over and she splinted up both she and Hatchet, knowing that help would arrive soon. Another knight had seen her go down after all.

"Shh shh shh," she soothed, keeping Hatchet laying down with his big beak in her lap. "You're gonna be ok, buddy," she told him, not entirely sure how true it was. Loftwings had hollow bones, so broken legs or wings could be particularly debilitating to them. He might never be able to properly fly again, much less walk.

But he was her best friend, and she knew that Hatchet wasn't about to go letting her ride another loftwing. He was prissy and territorial like that.

A sorrowful warble came from Hatchet's throat and Karane smiled sadly at him. "Shush you big dope. There are others nearby, you're going to be fine."

They had to sling a giant hammock between two other loftwings to get Hatchet back home, while Karane had just hitched a ride with Pipit. Hatchet was immediately taken to those who had expertise in healing birds, which she had been taken to a doctor for a cast.

A few hours later, Karane made her way to the Aviary and found her giant awkward bird, a cast on his leg, laying in the grass. Orielle was grooming him. He perked his head up as Karane approached and he lifted up one wing, squawking frantically.

"Calm down, mister," the knight instructed with a chortle, coming to sit at his neck and give him some scratches. "Look at you, you're being pampered over here!"

Orielle insisted, "Oh no, I don't mind! I think he's in a bit of shock."

"Oh you big ol' faker," Karane laughed, leaning against her bird. "You're nothing but a big old baby."

For it took six weeks for Karane's cast to come off, her arm ready to wield a sword once more. It took an extra two for Hatchet's leg to be able to support his own weight again, but in a happy turn of events, the loftwing recovered enough to still be the steed to a Sky Knight.

For the eight weeks it took for all the healing to finish, though, Karane spent every day with her bird, doing what the healers would have otherwise done. She groomed him and fed him and scratched under his beak, and when they two were alone, she'd sing little songs to him in her voice that was not particularly unique.

Yes, Karane's bird was big spoiled baby sometimes, but she chalked it all up to being part of the healing process.

* * *

**Bird Bath**

"What is Hatchet… doing?" Pipit asked her.

Karane turned around, following his pointed finger, and almost gagged on her own words.

The proper answer was 'I have no clue' but Karane was incapable of words right now. Absolutely incapable.

Before her, was her bird, Hatchet, the notoriously quirky and lovably destructive loftwing. His big gangly self was in a little pond in Faron Woods.

Rolling in the water, on his back, wings flailing at all sides, and trying to sing happily, though it came out in gargles and high pitches.

The tiny birds native to the wood had previously been in that pond, fluttering the water into their wings to get clean. Now, they were up in the trees, looking down at the over-sized creature that was invading their space glaringly.

With a splash and a flip, Hatchet was back on his own feet, his feathers soaked in pond water and his wings and chest all fluffed out from the rolling. He looked ridiculous.

"Mfft!" Karane squeaked, trying to hold in her laughter.

Hatchet cawed proudly at his girl-person.

"I think he wanted to take a bath too," Pipit chuckled.

* * *

**Short**

Karane's hair was short in comparison to most women. She never let it grow up, frequently cutting it herself to keep it properly trimmed at the length of just barely below her shoulders. At the same time, she methodically put them into pigtails almost every day, and if not pigtails, then on singular ponytail. Never was Karane seen in public with her hair down.

There was only one person who had a regular chance to see Karane's hair down.

"I love it when your hair is down," Pipit mentioned one evening, playing with a few tendrils of her ruddy red locks.

"Its dumb," Karane chuckled, passing off his comment.

"No its not," he insisted, pulling her closer by the waist. "Your hair is pretty, Rane. Its even better down."

"No its not," she laughed, "My hair is probably the plainest thing there has ever been," Karane argued amusedly. "It doesn't do anything, it just lays there."

"It looks great just laying here right now," Pipit teased.

Karane eyed him skeptically. "There is a huge difference between my hair just laying on a pillow and my hair just laying around when I'm standing up."

"So is it not going to look good if you get up?"

"Not at all."

"Fine, get up, let's see."

Karane sighed and complied, sitting up in bed, but keeping the sheet up near her out of modesty. Her hair flopped down to her shoulders, the ends of the strands tickling her back.

"There, are you happy?" she asked incredulously.

Pipit smirked. "Still gorgeous."

To this day, Karane still insisted that he was only saying that because, at the time, they both were suffering from a bad case of sex hair.

* * *

**The Unknown**

Being frightened usually resulted from a certain stimulus that was considered adverse to one person or another. It was normal, it was expected, and it was something everybody could comprehend. So-and-so is afraid of spiders. So-and-so is afraid of remlits. Normal.

Karane, for instance, was afraid of tornadoes. She knew this and dealt with it fairly easily, like an adult. But, what she quickly found out, was that horror and terror resulted from what you did not know.

She never remembered being afraid of the dark as a child, and for most of her life, she was perfectly comfortable with night time and the lack of light. It was almost comforting to just have the chance to sink into the shadows and disappear for a while.

Real horror struck her on her first night on the surface.

She was camping. Other Skyloftians were around too, it was not that she was alone. In fact, they weren't ever outside and unprotected. They were in the Goddess Temple and the ruins of the Sealed Grounds. They were in a confirmed safe location, sleeping on the surface. It was supposed to be fun.

Yet, as night approached and everyone began to climb into the cots and fall asleep, Karane found her eyes unable to close.

She could still hear everything. The bugs, the shuffling of tiny birds, the wind in the trees, the distant rushing of water, and then the abysmal gaps of silence in between.

What lurked out there? What was she not hearing? What were they not prepared for?

She wasn't on duty, but she had brought her sword for safety's sake, and Karane soon found herself up, sword drawn, and sitting against the wall. She needed the wall there. Something solid against her back, to ground her and make her feel at least slightly more protected.

There were so many things out there that could go wrong… Something could attack them. What if someone died? What if she fell asleep and couldn't react in time to save them?

What if it could hear them all breathing right now?

Karane did not sleep that night. She could not bear the weight of what she could not see, could not hear. She sat against the wall like that, alert and on-guard. Experiencing, true horror.

* * *

**Electricity**

Physical contact was always tricky for Karane. Given her schooling and job as a knight, there were usually layers of clothing and armor coating her body and hands, which left the sensation of touch a dulled experience. Generally, direct contact between her skin and any touchable object was more sensitive because her skin was just not used to touching anything beyond her layers of clothes and armor.

Which made his touch feel like electricity.

He could only really get the chance to touch her when they were both of duty and out of their armor, which was not as often as would be ideal. But, when they were, his fingers might play with her hair a bit, or simply hod her hand. Those were the things Karane was more accustomed to dealing with.

It was when hands lingered that shivers would be sent down her spine and she might flinch from the raw sensation. Her skin was not used to being touched, particularly out of its protective shell.

Just a thin layer of cotton between his hand and her back was enough to make her shiver. A jolt of electricity would run across her skin at the contact when there was no more gauntlets and no more chain mail to hinder the sense.

But as time went on and there were chances for his hands to linger on bare skin, Karane found herself unable to get used to it—not that she wanted to. His touch caused bolts of lightning through her veins when his fingers found and caressed her thighs, as they so often liked to do. Or, maybe it was as simple as playfully tracing invisible patterns on her abdomen while she was reading. Or, perhaps , the setting was more intimate and a gentle feel was copped.

No matter the occurrence, Karane found herself overwhelmed by the raw nerve endings that were ever present on her skin. Without fail, she would be a bit consumed by the electricity in his touch.

Sometimes, she had to swat his hand away just to get a moment of respite for her sensitive skin, but his hands would always find their way back.

And the electricity would continue.

* * *

**Thick in the Air**

Thick in the air, the blood, the blood.

Thick in the air the blood.

Karane was used to blood. Not only being a knight, but being a woman, made her accustomed to injuries and open wounds. Bleeding happened, it was natural and it was nothing new. Seeing blood had never made her squeamish, and seeing her own blood had never even made her uncomfortable or concerned.

Until, that is, the accident.

Thin in your hand, the blood, the blood.

Thin in your hand, the blood.

It had happened in Eldin. Part routine patrol, part group effort to expel some of the fire creatures from the Fire Sanctuary. It had been decided after a while that the sacred ruins to the dragons should be cleaned up and restored. Now that the surface was being thoroughly settled, being quite a few years after Link and Zelda opened it up to Skyloft, this was a possible effort. There were more knights in the surface militia now, and they had decided to go in a group, to better be prepared. Now, Karane was considered one of the more experienced knights. She was holding an officer position at this point in her life, and was assuming this would be an easily accomplished scouting mission.

Flowing from your skin, the blood, the blood.

Flowing from your skin, the blood.

Truth be told, nothing had gone too terribly wrong on the mission either. But, as common in Eldin, the lava was unpredictable and dangerous. One of the newer recruits had miss stepped, right into the line of some gurgling molten rock. Her instincts had kicked in, and she moved to get them out of the way.

Flowing to the earth, the blood, the blood.

Flowing to the earth, the blood.

But, it was one second too late, and the liquid fire rose to consume her calf. She screamed and collapsed, luckily being pulled away by the other knights there, so she was not drowned in the unbearable heat. But when she looked down, trying to see the source of her throbbing, searing pain, and all she saw was the red. All she could feel was the red. All she could taste was the red. All she could smell was the red.

Thick in the air, the blood, the blood.

Thick in the air, the blood.

* * *

**Hatchet**

Yes, he was a silly bird. He had a habit of taking baths in shallow pools and making a fool of himself. He made goofy noises when he was happy. He liked to sit on his person and the fledglings. He didn't, however, like boy-person, and made sure he knew. But he also respected boy-person the longer boy-person stayed around.

Yes, he was neurotic. As a chick he had been over-coddled by his mother. As a chick he had been ultra-squeamish towards the dirt and bugs that his person loved so much. As a chick he had been too afraid to leave his nest, until his mother had forced him to fly and he had met his person. As an adult, he over reacted to the slightest injuries. As ad adult, he spooked easily and would panic in a heart beat. As an adult, he was worrisome over his person and he felt that she did not quite know what she was doing all of the time— such as boy-person. But, despite his person's bad choices, she was happy and that kept him calm.

Despite these two very big personality issues that had been present all of his life, though, he had not been fated to be the loftwing of a cooing gentle person who would take more care of him than themselves.

Yes, he was a knight's loftwing. Despite his neurotic habits, he had been trained to understand whistle signals. Despite his silliness, he had a sense of when he was "on the job." Despite his neurotic habits, he knew how to be brave and how to help his person fend off threats. Despite his silliness, he knew when his person was scared and he knew how to make her feel safe in the face of danger.

Yes, he was protective. In spite of his cowardice, he stood by his person when someone or something was threatening her. In spite of his person's preference for boy-person, he took every precaution he could while he was present to make sure boy-person didn't think it was a good idea to try anything on his person. Later on this would no longer become relevant, and he would have to focus his protectiveness to his person's fledglings, they needed him more.

So yes, he was silly, neurotic, a knight's loftwing, and protective. But, most importantly…

He was loved.

* * *

**A Simple Gesture**

Before they graduated, Pipit used to come take early morning naps in her room to catch up on his sleep before class. He would wordlessly take a seat against the wall and get some shut eye for a few extra hours.

This ritual was kept up for a while, simple and quiet. Sometimes, Karane would crawl onto the floor and join him against the wall, in exchange of her comfortable bed. She actually enjoyed the simplicity of curling up with him in the very early mornings before their homework was due.

But, after one particular morning in which three words were exchanged between the two, Karane thought that these simple mornings, needed a little something more. So she started another simple gesture, this one with a little bit more affection.

Now, Karane loved her bed. She always had, and always would love a good comfy bed. This particular bed was something she held dear. It was her first consistent bed since she had sound her childhood house on a grief stricken impulse, so it meant a lot to her. She piled it high with blankets and had added a few fluffy throw pillows from her old home. It was supposed to only be big enough for one person, but really it could have held two, had Karane not made it into her own personal nest of cushions.

But, at a certain point, Karane decided to clean up her mess of a nest. She thought about what she actually NEEDED to sleep, and she removed many of the miscellaneous stuffies and small cushions that she never really needed. Then, she added one very important thing.

The next morning, Pipit tiredly climbed up the stairs as usual, and came into her room as quietly as possible. But, this time, he would see something quite different from every other morning.

Usually, Pipit would find Karane in a cocoon of her own blankets and small cushy pillows. She was usually buried in her bedding, with some bits of her red hair or some toes being exposed to the cool morning air.

On this morning, he found her, still curled up in her bed, but no longer in a giant rolled pancake of her own bedding supplies and indistinguishable to the common eye, but he saw her scooted on one side, against the wall. She was missing her piles of decorative cushions and was lacking a few never-used blankets. Instead, in the roomy gap she had left, was one thing.

A second pillow, big enough for another person's head.

* * *

**A Rousing**

"Karane, get up already!"

"Mmmmmnnnnnnuuuuhhhhhh!"

"You have to wake up, its your first day of actual knight training!"

"No its nooottttt," Karane whined, her face buried between two pillows, blankets clutched around her. "I graduated yesterday, I have another day offffff!"

"No, Karane, you don't. Remember? Yesterday was your day off, and we celebrated last night. You drank a little too much, didn't you?" Zelda asked, an amused smirk on her face.

Karane frowned underneath her blankets. No… that wasn't right… was it?

Damn.

She shot out of bed, flinging aside the blankets and pillows. Her hair was all over the place. ""Oh no no no no!" she prattled, launching herself from the bed.

"I'm going to be so late!" she yelped, pulling on her layers of training armor as fast as humanly possible. Zelda snickered a bit at her friend.

"You're horrible at this. Be glad I decided to stay the night in Skyloft, or you'd be sleeping through your first day at work," she teased.

"I owe you big time, agreement," Karane breathed, buckling on her chain mail. As she pulled her tunic on, Karane realized she couldn't find her hat. "Oh no… Beret, beret, beret…."

Zelda held it out, still holding a look of pure entertainment. "Here. Don't hurt yourself."

Karane shook her head with a guilty look on her face as she grabbed the green beret from her hand. "Yeah… I make no promises."

She trotted out to the training grounds, just barely still on time for her first day at work.

"Where were you, Rane?" Pipit asked as she showed up later than him, an incredibly rare occasion.

"Too much pumpkin beer," she summed it up to, adjusting her pigtails, which had been put up in a rush.


	8. Motherhood II

**Slap in the Face**

The first time Karane had personally encountered scandal, had been after her father's death, when her mother fell into invalidism and depression. She had only been a kid then and had barely understood what was being said, but the tone of voice made her think it was bad.

Those who spoke were, as usual, the women washing laundry. They were the gossips of Skyloft, after all, being a mixture of bazaar folk and the nosiest of mothers.

"I cannot _believe_ the way Herine is acting. She had a child, for the Goddess's sake, and the woman can't pull herself together!"

"We've all experienced loss, she's not special in that regard. I pity her poor daughter."

The raging red head that was said pitiable daughter and fumed from her spot under the washing bridge. She had climbed up and screamed at the gossiping women, "DON'T EVER TALK ABOUT MY MOMMY LIKE THAT YOU DAMN CRAZY HENS!" she had screeched at the top of her lungs.

The woman all went agasp at such behavior and Karane sealed the deal by, perched atop the rail of the bridge, slapped one of them across the face before she stormed off back to her house to check on her mother.

While it was true that Karane's mother had become neglectful and cold, nobody ELSE was allowed to say so. After all, that was HER mother, not theirs. It was none of their business.

The second time she encountered scandal, she was entering school at the Knight Academy. Of course there was scandal there, because it was not considered ladylike or appropriate for women to become knights. Karane had expected it. But, surprisingly enough, the laundry gossip was once again about her mother.

"If that girl had had a mother she would never be doing this!"

"Herine didn't limit her enough. She let that child become too much of a tomboy!"

Once again, Karane slapped one of them, the one who had used her mother's name, and this time she hissed, "You talk about my mother one more time and I'll take it out on all your sons next time. Remember, I'm in their classes now."

For a while, that had been the end of the real scandal making gossip. It took several years, but Karane earned the respect of her instructors and peers, though never the old laundry women. But, in their defense, they had done as they were told and had never spoken her mother's name in vain again.

The third time it happened was when she was pregnant. As usual, it was the laundry crowd, and not quite unexpectedly, it was Mallara.

"That woman is trying to brain wash my son. She has always been a menace and always will be. I swear, that baby isn't even Pipit's! After all, there was that thug boy when they were in school who was involved with her…"

Nobody else had spoken, either because they didn't believe it, or they had seen Karane coming that way. After all, she had laundry to do too. She was heavily pregnant and waddling towards the bridge with her basket full of washing when she had heard Mallara's accusations.

Utter silence was what followed. The women there who knew of the past two times, were waiting for the slap and the threat. The newer ladies were wide eyed and shocked.

Surprising everyone, including herself, Karane kept a straight, blank face, and went about her business. Mallara saw her and kept an eye on the red head at all times, not knowing if she WAS going to be slapped.

But the strike never came. At least not then.

Two weeks later, the baby arrived. With whoops and hollers and celebrations, neighbors and friends came to give their blessings and gifts. Yet, when Mallara arrived, come to coo over her freckled, ginger haired grand daughter, Karane told her she wasn't allowed to and scooped up her baby in her arms, preventing the new grandmother from touching her.

"Excuse me?" Mallara had barked. "That is MY grandchild, I will hold her all I want!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, is she YOUR granddaughter?" Karane asked plainly, her face stoic and piercing. "I could have sworn it wasn't Pipit's."

And that was the slap to the face that followed Karane's third personal encounter with scandal.

* * *

**Emptiness**

Normally, quiet was something to be enjoyed. It was peaceful and still and lovely to enjoy.

But when everything around you just felt muffled and dull, then there was no quiet to enjoy. Everything was quiet. Everything was empty.

That was perhaps the worst part. That feeling of emptiness. The knowledge and feeling that there had been something there before, but now it was gone. There was something hollow there now.

Day and night she felt that emptiness and could not move on from it.

If she had just gone to visit Mallara like she had promised she would.

If she had remembered to lock the door that morning.

If she had kept her sword somewhere close by.

Too many 'if's were trying to fill the void, and only making it deeper. Too many 'I love you's and 'it will be fine's trying to close the void, only making it wider. Too many sounds of other things that had been, that could have been, that never will be, trying to strengthen the void, and succeeding.

Once, the word "torture" was used to describe this kind of emptiness and silence. Surprisingly, it came from Mallara. Surprising still, the word was accurate and it was what finally closed the void and cauterized the wound.

Her mother-in-law was right when she had sat down next to her in their yard one day and simply stated it, without mockery, without derision. From one woman to another, as a simple offering of truce, no matter how temporary.

"The loss of a child is torture."

* * *

**Tummy Hurts**

Every child in the history of the world had stomach aches. And all of them described it as their tummy hurting. Most of them went to their mothers about this issue that so often plagued them.

"Mumma…" a quiet voice interrupted one night. A night when Daddy was running late at work and Mumma was the only one home.

"Mmmmm… yeah, sweetie?" Mumma mumbled, rolling over and rubbing her eyes.

"My tummy hurts…"

"Ok," came the yawn of the mother. She got up out of bed and scooped up her daughter, carrying the little red head down to the kitchen. "You want some water?" she asked sleepily.

There was a silent nod against her neck. Mumma smiled and poured a glass from their basin.

"Here ya go, baby."

They both sat in the living area as she sipped her water cup down to nothing. By the time it was empty, her mother had almost fallen asleep again.

"Better?"

"No… Mumma, it still hurts."

Her mother smiled knowingly and once again picked up the girl with the flaming hair and this time carried her back upstairs. "Then the only cure is for you to come sleep with me, isn't it?" her mother cooed, rubbing her back.

Once the pair cuddled up in the big bed together, she was fast asleep, leaving her mother to chuckle quietly to herself.

Yes, most children suffered from tummy hurts on a regular basis. But most of the time, it was not because of a stomach ache, it was because they were afraid of the dark and needed to feel safe.

Her father would know the very same thing when he got home from work to find not one, but two red heads sleeping in the bed that night.

* * *

**Differences Between**

Karane's natural rhythm differed greatly from Pipit's. Pipit's rhythm adapted to any time and any type of music. It changed for his emotions and he almost always wanted to dance.

Karane's was different. When fighting, she had a natural fast aced rhythm that sent her spinning in her dodges and pulling off some impromptu ballet moves in her sword strokes. But, outside of battle and sparring, she preferred a slower, calmer pace. She only wanted to dance when she was feeling happy, and she could only really do simple three-step waltzes at the drop of a hat, otherwise she required a lot of instruction.

But, Pipit was a dancer, and there were many times when Karane found herself being cajoled into a dance, even if she was not the more talented partner.

But there were those moments when she didn't want to for some reason or another, and this was one of them.

"No, Pipit, I'm not going to dance!" she snapped.

Pipit pouted with his big blue eyes. "Come on, Rane~ please? I'm off work early for once, why not?"

"Because my feet hurt from my own work all day and I don't want to do any of your jigs and swings today, Pipit," she insisted with a frown from her chair.

"What if its just a waltz then?" he offered. "Just for a little bit, come on," he coaxed, already grabbing her hand and pulling her up. She groaned, but allowed herself to be brought up from her perch.

While she was not entirely willing, Karane was pulled into Pipit's arms. She placed one of her hands in his hands, placing her other on his shoulder. His free hand went to her lower back, placating her with a gentle rub of his palm.

Pipit began to hum a gentle, slow tune and led her into the motions of the dance that she at least knew how to do. She still had to count out the steps, but she did so successfully and was able to stay in time to Pipit's humming.

For a few quiet minutes, they just stayed like that. One, two, three stepping around the room as Pipit hummed a song. On several occasions Karane wanted to lean her head on his shoulder, but it wasn't happening.

As Pipit had pity on Karane's feet, the rhythm stopped and Pipit smiled widely at her, gently placing a hand atop her very swollen belly.

"Thanks for putting up with me," he murmured, kissing her forehead.

* * *

**Secrecy**

For reasons beyond Karane's understanding, she was good at keeping personal secrets. Particularly ones like this.

She was down at the surface taking her usual patrol in Faron today. Nothing special was happening this morning, yet Karane still felt like she was getting away with murder.

Everything was still palely cast in the light of a rising sun, meaning that the Kkwis were asleep and the birds were just beginning to chirp. Surprisingly enough, Karane had woken up very early and had gotten down here before her shift time, starting patrol early. She would be switching off with the patrolman from the previous night soon, but for now she was enjoying the secrecy of her situation.

Strolling through the peaceful wood, she came across a nice meadow with soft grass carpeting its sun exposed clearing.

Karane kicked off her boots and dug her feet into the earth, feeling the grass between her toes and a few wildflowers grazing her ankles and calves.

She took a deep, slow breath and grinned to herself.

At least for now, and at least for as long as she could hide it, she was barefoot and pregnant.

* * *

**Second Time Around**

Second time giving birth was less terrifying than her first. She knew what was coming this time, so she didn't have to scream at her water breaking.

She was much more composed this time around, casually elbowing Pipit in the middle of the night, announcing, "I'm in labor, get up."

Pitta had been the one scared during the second birth. Only a two year old at the time, the shouts and screams from the other room had frightened her, but, Karane being experienced with this now, had ordered Pipit to go tend to their toddler while she took care of the next one.

Yes, the second time around, she was giving commands. Henya was ordered on how many towels to bring, exactly, and when to tell her to push or not. Mallara was ordered out of every room she attempted to enter, even if it meant Karane was screaming at her down the hall.

It must have been entertaining to listen to for those within earshot. Particularly in comparison to the last birth. But, Karane's ultra-commanding nature had held up fine and she had successfully birthed a second daughter into the world.

At some point after the contractions and the crowning and the infant's screaming, Pipit asked her, "Why so demanding this time around?"

"Because, Freckles," she had tiredly responded, "This is my do-over."

* * *

**Aches and Pains**

A long day of training could work and hurt some muscles that Karane often forgot she had. During particularly rigorous sparring matches, she'd go to bed that night groaning at the pains in her back or the aches in her calves.

Injuries, created even worse pains. If it was a pulled muscle or a hideous cramp, then she could handle the pain momentarily by stretching it out against the grain, no matter how agonizing it was for those thirty seconds of hell. If it was a bruise, then there would be some pussy-footing around the sour spot until it began to heal up. Blisters required bandages and tight-binding to force them open, though the raw skin was never pleasant to experience. If it was an open wound of some kind, then she had to take special precautions to be sure nothing got infected and that it healed close fairly quickly. In bad cases, stitches and cauterization were necessary, and they required at least one day of rest, as not to re-open the wound.

But all these protocols for injuries had left Karane with tougher skin and a higher tolerance for pain. She was by no means a "tender foot." But that didn't make her appreciate gestures of pain relief any less.

When they had been friends, she and Pipit had helped each other out when they had bad injuries. She helped him stretch out hyper-extended muscles, and he helped her apply blister balms to her feet. When they had finally started a romantic relationship, they slowly began to get more comfortable with one another, and so they were more comfortable helping each others' injuries more. Karane began to help apply medicines and bruise balms to wounds on Pipit's back, and Pipit began to help her stretch out her pulled muscles in her thighs.

Gradually, these pain relievers became not only ritualistic, but gentle and intimate. They would literally see each others' weaknesses, and help ease the pain of them. It was a real life metaphor that had not escaped Karane's observation. She rather enjoyed it, actually, because it was a way of secretly admitting to weaknesses and miss-comings that she normally wouldn't be comfortable admitting.

The only issue with this was even later in their relationship, when she was pregnant for the first time. Pipit was, as expected, supportive and encouraging and always offering to massage away any pains or aches to make her feel better.

But, in her mind, that would mean that her weaknesses came then from her encroaching status of motherhood. And, secretly, Karane was hardly convinced she was cut out for such a thing.

So, no matter how tender and swollen her ankles became, or how stretched and aching her back and belly grew, she insisted that she could "take care of herself." Because to admit otherwise would be to admit her fears.

* * *

**Unique Olfactory Sensations**

Most people have unique scents associated to their bodies. As a child, Karane had the ever present scent of soil and minerals. As an adult, Karane was told regularly by her husband that she had a very unique smell. A mixture of grass, rain, and soap, he told her. Of course that would be when she didn't try to wear perfume and be fancy.

Pipit's scent was tree bark, cotton, and a certain masculine muskiness that she couldn't attribute to anything found in nature.

But there was another scent entirely that would become her favorite to ever smell. Sadly, though, it was temporary.

The soft, subtle scent of her babies was the scent Karane loved the most. She adored the quiet moments with her infant, be it Pitta or later Lark, when she was rocking them to sleep and could just hold the tiny bundle close and nuzzle the top of their heads. The wispy curls of red always felt like velvet on her nose, and as she inhaled, she got a wiff of that sweet and beautiful baby smell.

The scent itself was indescribable as anything other than "baby," as Karane found that as her daughters grew, their baby scents faded into unique scents all their own. It was almost sad, the way that gentle olfactory velvet disappeared. Not only did it mean the scent was gone, but it was also one of the first signs of her children growing up.

* * *

**Nyeh!**

"Nyehhhhhh!"

"Bleehhhhhh!"

Karane snickered as she watched them. They were having a competition to see whose tongue was the longest, and consequentially, who could hold it out the longest. They seemed very intent upon this competition.

But then again, they were 5 and 7.

"I cau holl ish ou longah!"

"You hashen deet me yeh!"

Karane took some pinches of salt in her hand without them noticing and strolled over. "How's it going, girls?"

"Thine!"

"Gooh!"

"Wow, pretty stiff competition," she commented. "Who's going to win?"

"Myeh!"

"Myeh!"

"Ahhh…. Ok," Karane nodded, examining both their pink little tongues very precisely. "This looks like a tough call… But I'm going to have to say that the winner is…"

As both her daughters looked to her anxiously, waiting for their mother to declare who was better, Karane smirked and tossed the salt in both her palms of their tongues. The little girls let out tiny shrill screams in shock and they both recoiled, their tongues receding back into their mouths.

Karane laughed as they both began to calm down and giggle too. She hugged them both and told them, "Remember, Mummy ALWAYS wins."

* * *

**Surprises**

One thing Karane's mother had always done right were birthdays. There was always a lot of planning before hand to make something a surprise, and of course, there had to be much plotting to be sure that the surprise went off without a hitch.

Sometimes, it was the birthday gift which was the surprise, and that was always tricky to pull on the hyper-active child that Karane used to be. When her birthday was approaching, she would become obnoxious in her search for whatever present she was supposed to be getting. Her mother had started hiding the gifts at a neighbor's house to make sure her daughter couldn't figure out the secret.

But, the best surprises were the ones that Herine and Karane would pull on her father. Of course, her mother would have the good ideas and the plans, but she always included Karane in the surprises they would pull. Sometimes, she got to help make the presents for her father, other times she would be in charge of hiding the cake. One time, even, Karane had been allowed to go invite all her father's friends to the surprise party, and make sure that the secret was kept.

The surprises was one thing Karane had always thought her mother had done right. It was something she tried to apply to all birthdays.

On a friend's birthday, she would orchestrate some kind of celebration for them. Usually, someone's dorm would be crashed and covered in celebratory decorations, or Henya would be begged and cajoled into baking a big cake.

On her own birthday, she would TRY to pull the wool over her own eyes, but usually she figured out her own schemes. Luckily, Karane had good friends and they would help put a little something together to assist in her shenanigans

Yes, birthday surprises were the things Karane's mother had done the best. But, on one particular year, Karane had it figured that she had finally beaten her mother's record. This year, she had the best surprise to pull.

"Happy birthday, Pipit! Oh by the way, I'm pregnant."

* * *

**A Dip in the Line**

Wrinkles were just inconsistencies in the usual surface. Wrinkles in a sheet went up and down, making the previously smooth cloth a mess. Wrinkles on a face were dips down into the skin, showing wear and age. Wrinkles in time were sensations that there had been no time passed at all, skipping over the real span of the ticking clock that had occurred.

Karane's sheet always had wrinkles, because she was unable to "make a bed properly" according to Mallara. Her face had been gaining small wrinkles lately, due to natural age and a particularly stressful two months. She was not, however, experiencing a wrinkle in time.

Her family was though.

As if no time had been passing, Pipit took the girls out for that picnic he promised on his next day off. As if no time had been passing, the children spent the day talking about school and who had said what about whom at lunch the day before. As if no time had been passing, for them, Karane stayed inside to do the chores and watched from the window.

It was almost eery to her, the way the three of them just carried on with business. But, then again, it was a good thing. If her daughters were perfectly content to carry on as if nothing had happened, then Karane was fine with that, it would make them happier in the end. Pipit wasn't aware that any time had passed at all, so it would be easier for him too if they could all just pick up where they left off.

But Karane found herself unable to do that. It had been eight weeks. Almost two months, and she couldn't seem to get past that. Although nothing much had happened in those two months, she couldn't get past the fact that they had even existed.

It was easy enough to tell that she was shaken. There was an ever present fear that it might happen again. That maybe something would go wrong on another patrol, his or hers, or that maybe, when he went to sleep at night, he wouldn't be able to wake up.

It was easy enough for him to tell that she was shaken. She had barely offered up a fight when Mallara shoved her way over for dinners, and she hadn't spoken a word of protest at said mother-in-law's demands that three of the four person family come over to her house for supper. After all, that would give Karane some time to just process and start moving on, right?

After the third day of that, he knew something was really wrong, because Karane hated it when Mallara butted her way between her and her children. It was obvious by her quiet aloofness that something was wrong. So, that night, he asked her.

"Nothing," she insisted, getting into her nightshirt for bed. "Nothing's wrong. Why would anything be wrong?" she had even put a smile on her face to reassure him. "Don't be ridiculous, Freckles."

"Quit with the front, shortcake, its not working."

It hadn't taken much for her to admit, in her own way, that she was still scared. And as simple as that, she had buried her face against his chest and admitted, "I couldn't handle it, Pipit. You were gone for two months. I shut down. I almost became my mother… What if something like this happens again? I can't do this alone."

His solution was pretty easy. "I guess we're just going to have to get really old together and die at the same time then, hmm?"

That evening, Karane finally slept, curled up close with her husband, without waking up every five minutes to be sure he was still there.

Because they were both there, putting wrinkles on the sheets, with small wrinkles on their faces, experiencing a wrinkle in time.


	9. Childhood III

**Picture Perfect**

Karane hated dresses, and she was going to make sure her mother knew, today. All three of them were supposed to be posing for a family portrait, now that Karane was old enough to actually sit and participate in the portrait.

"Karane, please put your dress on, dear," Herine commanded as she put her earrings in.

"NO!"

Her mother sighed and closed her eyes. "Karane, I will not argue this with you."

"I dun wanna wear it! Dresses are itchy!" she insisted.

"No it isn't dear, you've worn it before without any complaints, why are you doing this now?" she asked, her voice sounding strained and tired.

"Because its itchy now, and I dun wanna be in a picture!" the five year old insisted.

"Honey, this is not the time for a tantrum," her mother groaned, rubbing her eyes. "Your father will be home any minute. Don't you want to look pretty for Daddy? He wants so much for you to pose pretty for this portrait."

Karane narrowed her eyes at her mother and crossed her pudgy little arms. "No he doesn't… Daddy likes what I like, and I hate the dress."

Her mother looked to her daughter, sitting on her parents' bed in her patchwork play clothes. They were overalls. Karane had fallen in love with the overalls recently, and often refused to wear anything else.

"If you don't put on the dress, I'll burn the overalls."

"NO! Mommy, no!" she yelled. Fear suddenly shot through her five year old little soul at the thought that her favorite article of clothing become a bonfire in their yard. "Mommy please!"

"Well, Karane, its your choice, The dress or your overalls," she sighed, sitting beside her daughter on the bed. "Will you behave, or will your overalls become the fire for dinner tonight?"

"Noooo!" she whined, banging her fists on the bed.

In the end, the paranoia of her mother burning the overalls had won out and Karane had put on the itchy purple dress with the lace on the collar, and she had been silently seething the whole time they spent posed for the portrait.

When her father had told her later, "You're pretty as a picture, princess," Karane's response had been simple.

"Your wife better not hurt my pants."

* * *

**Icy Plans**

Winters in Skyloft got awfully cold, but only sometimes would it get cold enough to freeze the lake. Given that there was the waterfall flowing into it, it took incredibly low temperatures to get the whole thing frozen.

This year, all of it was ice.

Of course, the kids went out to play with this ice lake they had gained, eager to try skating across it somehow. They were soon launching themselves onto the ice, on their knees or on their sleds. Only the more gutsy children had decided to try using their own feet. Balance was such a tricky thing on that ice.

Well, being ten at the time and having plenty of reckless guts, Karane began challenging the other children to a foot race across the ice. "Are you man enough to take me on?" she challenged, boys and girls alike. "I'm the fastest thing in Skyloft!"

Karane was not the fastest thing in Skyloft. She was at best, one of the top five racers amongst the children.

But, her words of bravado did their job and provoked some other children into racing with her. Soon, there were five of them setting up for the competition. When the signal sounded, they took off onto the ice, all five of them beginning to slip and stagger as they struggled to keep their balance, nonetheless keep speed.

When Groose fell, his pompadour staying firmly in the air despite the blunder, Karane turned to her right to look at it and laughed. It was entertaining how that slicked back hair of his never seemed to move.

But, the distraction sent her feet out from under her, and she fell next, smack on her stomach, flat on the ice. She let out an 'oof' as he body slid to the side from the force of the fall. There were some giggles from the audience when she tumbled, considering Karane had been the one so over-confident in the first place.

But when she tried to get up, she kept sliding back, towards the icy ledge off of Skyloft.

Karane got scared, but kept trying to pull herself up. "H… Help!" she ended up calling, the closer and closer she got to that slippery drop. "Guys!"

The other children all began to fluster and hurry, trying to keep her from going of the edge, but they were all young and nobody knew what to do. A few ran to get their parents, knowing adults would have the solution.

"Ok," Kina and Zelda ended up deciding, "Grab onto my sled," Kina offered, sliding her sled over to Karane, holding onto the end of its long steering rope. "We'll pull you up!"

When the red head tried to grab it, though, she lost her grip, and with a small scream, went sliding off the frozen edge. There was a tense silence, the children all as frozen as the lake.

But, as was normal for Skyloft, a flying knight was there to catch anyone who fell off the edge.

Sighs of relief and little laughs filled the winter air as the big loftwing landed on the lake's bank. Karane was still clinging to the back of the knight, though. It didn't matter that people fell for one reason or another every day, she had never fallen before and it scared her to death.

"Alright, there ya go, kiddo," he chuckled, gently setting her down. "You're going to be fine."

Karane nodded nervously, "Thank you…. Mister…" she mustered. Like most of the Sky Knights, Karane recognized him from the community, but she didn't pay much attention to the names of adults. But he had saved her, and she would forever be secretly grateful.

As the other children huddled around to make sure she was ok, Karane noticed the neighbor kid with the freckled face walking up to the knight and saying, "Thanks Dad."

* * *

**Rapunzel**

Orielle had always been a girl fond of imagination and fairy tales. The whole island knew that. This made the girl an easy target for Karane during her childhood Reign of Terror. In the following months after her mother died, Karane was bitter and spiteful and had no way to cope with the complexities of it all, so she used any fellow child in reach as an outlet for her rather unstable emotions.

But the adults took pity on her, and often allowed her to come over for dinner or spend the night some time to help the orphan out. Orielle's parents were going to regret that very soon.

The food was good, and for a while Karane and Orielle were getting along. Parrow seemed relaxed about it, despite how protective of a brother he was.

"I read this book," Orielle was chittering about, "And there was a tower and a princess! It was so romantic~!"

Karane's eyes began to glaze over. This was not interesting. They HAD been talking about playing tag later… Nope, fairy tale junk was so lame. SO LAME!

Then, Orielle finished her summary with, "And they all lived happily ever after! I can't wait for MY happy ending!"

Karane outwardly scowled. "Nobody ever lives happily ever after, stupid."

"Hey, I'm not—"

"You're stupid for thinking that!" Karane snapped.

Parrow growled, "Don't call my baby sister stupid!"

Karane's answer was a stuck out tongue. Orielle just sat there pouting as her brother and neighbor began to fight.

Soon, Karane was asked to leave by the household parents, and she did so. But, as her swings of anger and poorly constructed coping mechanisms dictated, she was not going to let it go.

Later that night, Karane snuck her way into Orielle's room as quiet as possible. Using a rudimentary pair of scissors from school, Karane snipped off Orielle's long singular braid with a smirk. She then quickly made her way back out and muttered to herself:

"Here's your happy ending, Rapunzel."

Flying

At the Pairing Ceremony that occurred for the Slyloftian children when she was 12, Karane had of course gotten Hatchet. He had met her a few times before, and she had gone right up to the silly bird and recieved affectionate coos. All the other children paired up easily too, because by now many of them had met the young bird who would become their partner, it just had not been official yet. After all, they all had to wait for the Loftwings to get big and strong enough to fly with a rider.

While it was always pretty tricky to get the hang of flying for the first time, Karane found that her bird was… stunted, and physically incapable of handling a rider. She was stunned in the worst way possible.

"What do you mean he's stunted?" she had demanded of Prof. Owlan.

"I'm sorry, dear, but he has not finished growing yet. We think he refused to fly with him other on time, so his muscles are under developed."

After that, Karane had gone to her bird and chastised him for being such a baby. Of course yelling at the bird wasn't going to help, in fact it was counter productive. But she was so embarrassed and angry that she couldn't even TRY flying yet and she was one of the oldest kids in the village!

But, after sleeping on the problem, Karane decided that she was going to have to whip Hatchet into shape if he was going to get anywhere.

"Come on you lazy bum, we're going for a run," she commanded one morning, trying a loose rope around his neck and pulling him along behind her. "You need exercise, Hatchet, or we're never going to fly!"

It was difficult, trying to put the fidgety, panicky bird into boot camp, but Karane's will was much stronger than his, and she broke him down until they both went on morning jogs. She actually jogging, Hatchet flying above her head on the leach and exercising his wings.

Every month, she went back to Owlan and had him examine Hatchet. "Is he better yet?" was her habitual question.

For almost a year, the answer was habitually, "Not quite yet."

But, just before her thirteenth birthday, Hatchet was finally up to standards. In what was perhaps one of the best birthday surprises of her life, Karane finally jumped off the platform and whistled as hard as she could for that stupid bird. He came, as she thought, and as she had hoped, he held her. But, what was even better than ever expected, they flew easy and calm. No problems were had.

Hatchet, for once in his life, was not fidgeting or flailing. He was gliding gracefully with his big peach wings out to his sides. Karane opened her eyes which had been glued shut since she had stepped off the side of Skyloft, and she saw the sky and the clouds all around them.

It was beautiful.

The wing was gently pulling at them both, keeping them cool in the sun, and the clouds were gently wisping on by. Hatchet flew them a bit higher, and Karane could see everything! She spotted the Lumpy Pumpkin in the distance, and as they turned around, she would look down to see Skyloft itself sitting below.

From above like that, she began to spot every person's house and every little person walking below. She could watch them all from up here, and it occurred to her that this was how all the birds saw the world every day.

As Karane hugged her bird's neck in the sky, she was absolutely breathless at the view.


	10. Teenhood III

**Green Beret**

Traditionally, the hats that senior members of the Sky Knight Academy were given were the conical pointed ones which always matched the color of their uniforms. It was the culture of their people, and the hats tended to suit the men who wore them.

However, the conical shape did suit Karane in the least. Given that she wore her hair in pigtails, the point of the hat fell down between them and the bottom hem of the hat could never fit all the way down her head because of said hair style choices. It just looked awkward.

But, Karane had fought for this uniform and this hat, she was not about to give it up without a fight. It was her pride and glory to have the sea-green knight's uniform. She was the first woman wear the traditional tunic and hat, after all.

Then, on her third day as a senior, during a sword training session with some of the already graduated knights, there was a… mishap.

In his defense, Karane had told the knight not to go easy on her because she was a girl. She had insisted that he challenge her as much as Pipit was being challenged, and the knight had delivered. Karane felt exhilarated to be sparring with real swords against someone so much more advanced than she was.

But that was her mistake.

Not yet being used to the weight of the blade and having to move this fast, Karane's ankle twisted as she tried to parry, and she fumbled. Right as her knighted sparring partner came down with the blade.

The damage had been pretty bad. Karane had to be taken to the clinic immediately, and her brand new uniform had been ruined by both the huge blood stains that had spurted up, and the slicing of the blade which had caused it.

The knight had not had enough time to pull back his blow, and the sword had torn an awful gash from her waist to her thigh on right side, resulting in a yell and an abrupt ending to the first day of sword training as a senior. Karane vaguely remembered Pipit's concerned shouts from behind the professors, but she mostly just remembered how embarrassed she had been.

Sitting in the clinic bed later, she would look at her soiled uniform and actually wonder if she was really cut out for it. Maybe all the mothers of Skyloft had been right. Maybe the Headmaster had been right. Maybe she had been wrong. After all, she had told the knight to challenge her at the same level Pipit was, and she was in the hospital. Pipit was fine, he hadn't gotten hurt.

"Pipit's just better than you," Karane muttered sadly to herself as she looked over the blood stains in her tunic, all on that left side. "He's probably the best knight in the Academy right now," she sighed, picking up the hat too. Somehow, her green hat had gotten a third of its end point taken off. She wasn't sure how, but that was ruined too.

"You're not good enough," she told herself as she winced from the wound yet again. She had stitches all up her side now, and didn't even need to wear a shirt given all the bandages she was garnering.

There was a knock on the door.

"Yeah?" she called half-heartedly.

The door creaked open and the faces of her friends were peeking inside. "Are you ok?" Zelda asked, being the first to speak.

Karane nodded, "Yeah, I'll be fine."

The lot of them filed in, all wearing smiles and bringing little gifts. Zelda had flowers, Link was claiming that he helped with that but Karane suspected he had only woken up a little bit ago. With a smile she thanked them both.

Orielle brought her some medicinal cream, saying, "It will help it heal up and keep infection from setting in! Plus, it smells like violets." Karane would end up using that cream out in the next four days, every time she changed her bandages.

Kina brought soup, but really, what else was Kina going to bring? While Karane thanked her, she didn't exactly eat it. She did not like pumpkin soup.

For a little while, they all chatted and Karane was filled in on all that had happened since her injury. Apparently, the knight who had done the deed was suspended for a few days as a formality. They had been able to get out of class early, they told her, because Professor Hornwell thought it was a good idea for them to visit her. "He thinks you're lonely," Zelda laughed.

"Well I'm glad you can benefit from the pity others give me," Karane joked back.

But, soon enough, everyone was leaving. They all had other things they needed to do, and it was getting late. As everyone left, one by one, Pipit lingered. He seemed to be waiting for everyone else to leave. Karane began to feel like she was under some kind of unflattering microscope.

"Are you ok?" he asked, concern etched in his blue eyes.

"I'll be fine, I just need a few days for the stitches to heal up," Karane assured him a smile.

Pipit frowned. By now, they had been such good friends for so long, that he could tell when she was lying. "Are you sure? You don't seem like everything is fine."

Karane sighed, "Nothing's wrong, Pipit. I promise."

"I just want to make sure you're not thinking of quitting," he continued. Karane stayed silent after that, because she WAS thinking of quitting…

"You haven't ever backed down from anything," he reminded her, "Ever since we've been kids. I just need to make sure you haven't turned into a coward."

Karane still said nothing, but Pipit said his goodbyes and left after that. She sat alone then, in the medical bed with her aching right side and her bloody uniform.

She considered what Pipit had said, and he was right. She had never been a coward, despite a childhood belief that cowardice was better than bravery. But, it was in her nature to stand up to what was in her way, and she had never even considered backing down until now.

After a night of pain and solitude, Karane made a decision. She firmly decided that, while she might not be as good as Pipit or good enough to fight the graduated knights, she was not going to give up.

So, she asked for someone to bring her a box of fabric and thread, and she began to repair her uniform as her body repaired itself. She couldn't get the blood stain out of the green, so she put a blue patch over it, in the shape of the Skyloft eagle. Now, her mark of failure would give her luck. She took her shortened hat and changed it into something fit her head better. It went from being the traditional pointed cone to an unorthodox green beret.

Years later, after Karane had graduated and had made her way into knighthood, that scar was still the biggest on her body, spreading from just below her bust line to the top of her right thigh. And, perhaps more importantly, her converted beret had become the new style of hat worn by many other Lady Knights of Skyloft.

* * *

**Encouraging**

For many things in life, Karane was supportive of Pipit. They had grown up together, and now they were best friends in school. They were new seniors now and they had always supported one another in their endeavors. Karane helped Pipit study for history tests, his best subject being ecology and biology, never history. He helped her train and encouraged her to get up to par with her sword.

They were best friends, they helped each other out.

But Karane refused to support one thing Pipit decided to do with his life. When he had told her that he was going to join the Night Patrol to earn extra money for school and for his mom, Karane had been outwardly ok with it. She didn't tell him that she thought it was good choice, but she didn't tell him how badly she disapproved.

"That's great that you got the job, Pipit," Karane had told him with a smile. "They'll be glad to have you."

But, on the inside, she felt like beating sense into his head. The Night Patrol was dangerous and time demanding. He had classes all during the day, how was he then supposed to go out at night and patrol? He would run himself ragged within the week, she knew it. And being tired on the job, as she knew he would refuse to quit, would lead to him making mistakes.

Maybe he would forget to call Jay. Maybe a monster would sneak up on him with his senses dulled. Maybe a storm would get him, like it had gotten her father. Or maybe Jay wouldn't catch him, like his father's loftwing hadn't caught him.

There were so many things that could go wrong in that situation, that Karane found it impossible for her to really be supportive of it.

What if he didn't come back?

What would she do?

She loved him, even if she didn't have the guts to tell him that, she didn't know what she would do if he died on that patrol. And it wouldn't be just her, what about his mother? Though Karane didn't exactly know Mallara, she knew that the mother and son were close.

So she just couldn't support this, not a bit. But, she never told him that out loud. Her behavior, though, gave him the idea that she did not approve of his decision. It quickly became a topic they didn't bring up too much, neither wanted to risk a rift in their long time friendship.

And even as the years went on and Pipit became one of the best known Night Patrolmen, Karane would never find it in her to be supportive of his chosen profession. Because, while she no longer worried about his skill being under par or an accident happening, she would then have to be frustrated with of the little time they could spend together with their conflicting patrol shifts.

No, Karane would never support Pipit's Night Patrol, because it always meant she was missing Pipit.

* * *

**Risky Business**

The stare down began. Both sets of eyes narrowed at one another. One blue, on brown. Both were tense and waiting for the other to make the first move.

It was risky business, playing this waiting game… But Karane was confident she could win.

Neither said a word as the stare down continue. It was night time now, most of the lights in people's houses had been put out and many were happily aslumber in the beds.

On the other hand, Karane had been up late, out with friends and colleagues. It had been fun, until, that is, the game of chance and risk began.

"Don't do it, Karane."

"I do whaaah I want!"

"No seriously, don't!"

"You'rrreee not my mom!"

Her fist raised, breaking the stillness. But, luckily for the senior Academy student, the other was quicker and more coherent tonight.

Karane found herself on the ground, restrained, before she could even react. But that wasn't saying much, she was drunk. It wasn't hard to outwit a hammered ginger.

"Git offa meeee!" she whined. But Kina's hold was firm.

"No," she whispered fiercely. "I'm taking you home and you're going to sleep this off. In the morning, you will thank me."

"But I have to do this!" Karane refuted.

"No, you definitely do NOT," Kina commanded, pulling her red head friend off the dirt and pushing her back towards the Academy. "You will be so glad I did this tomorrow."

"Why?" she slurred.

"Because, when you're sober, you're going to realize that telling Mallara you're in love with her only son is NOT a risk you want to take," Kina assured her.

* * *

**Upon A Star**

It was a frivolous childhood tradition to make wishes, be they on stars or on birthday cakes. Wishing and children went hand-in-hand. Wishes were made for special toys and gifts. Wishes were made to grow up faster or become popular. Wishes were made for loftwings to arrive early and for Winter Holidays to have flurries of snow.

The only thing Karane found herself wishing for most as a child was for a magical fairy to whisk her away to a world where she had a house again (turns out selling and demolishing it was not a good idea), and her father was still around to take care of her.

Luckily, as she got older, wishes became things mostly of the past and life became stable and good. After all, she was in school and she had friends and she had a warm place to sleep every night. Life was pretty damn good in her book.

But, as time went by, Karane found that there was a little bitty something she was wishing for. She might not have been actively down on her knees, hands together, speaking to the stars for her request, but she was wishing it silently and longingly almost every day.

With a quiet sigh that was obvious to everyone but him, Karane wished daily that maybe, just maybe, Pipit would notice that she was, in fact, sighing over him.

Maybe, if she wished hard enough, he would see the way she looked at him and be able to hear the desire in her voice. Maybe if she wished hard enough, he would somehow realize that she had been there all along, even when he talked about how cute the blonde girls were. Maybe, if she wished hard enough, he would notice how much she admired and adored him.

Maybe, if she wished hard enough, he would know that she loved him.

* * *

**Midnight Baths**

Karane had started the midnight leisure baths as a sophomore. It as a way for her to get some alone time and relax. She could think about the days past and the days ahead and all of the things in between. She loved having that secret solitude away from the world.

But one evening, she would learn that not everyone was asleep at midnight.

One evening, after it had become a routine for her to have these private bathing sessions after the clock struck 12, Karane wrapped herself in nothing but her towel, lit up her candle, and began her stroll downstairs to the washroom.

To her own massive regret, she had not noticed that there was another candle on in the hall below. So, of course, she ended up walking right up to the other midnight dwellers, accidentally.

Immediately, her eyes went huge and she almost tripped on the stairs when she saw a flash of both blue and brown hair.

"Cawlin, what are you doing up making all this noise? Its midnight for crying out loud," Pipit tired chastised. The new freshmen appeared to be having some issues accommodating the rules of the Academy, but then again, so did Karane.

"Curfew it strictly at eleven," Pipit reminded the younger boy. Then, they both noticed her, standing only a yard away from them on the last steps of the stairs. Only in her towel.

All three of the parties involved began to blush furiously. After all, it was embarrassing for everyone involved. Karane's ears were burning as Pipit asked, "Wh… What are you…" Well, he had TRIED to ask.

Karane turned her gaze down and walked through them determinedly. "I'm taking a bath, leave me alone!"

Both boys watched her as she stormed down the hall and shut herself up in the washroom, locking the door. Karane did not realize, but she had inadvertently tantalized both boys that evening with the mental image of midnight baths.

* * *

**Victories Lost**

Karane was good when it came to fighting, and often times she won in sparring matches. In school, she was good, but she never won all the time. One particular division of battle tactics that Karane was never good at, was the art of tickle wars.

As a kid, she had been powerless to fight against her father or mother tickling her. Squeals of giggles would fill the house in the wake of such wars.

When she was older, now a teenager, her best friend just happened to find out about this particular weakness. It had happened on accident.

"Hey, Rane, did you understand what Owlan was saying about—" Pipit asked, poking her side with his pencil.

"EEE!" she squeaked, jumping and flinching, swatting away his pencil violently as she held her other hand over hr mouth, keeping the giggles in.

This earned her a confused look from Pipit.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" Karane said, turning back to the textbook. "N… Nothing. Just don't poke me like that."

"Like what, like this?" he laughed, poking her side again. Karane shrieked in laughter again. "Oh ho ho!" Pipit grinned. "Seems the indestructible Karane has a weakness."

"No I don't," she insisted. "Can we please get back to studying, we have exams tomorrow!"

But, Pipit didn't seem to care about their junior year exams. He grinned wickedly and discarded the pencil, instead wiggling his fingers threateningly at her. Karane backed herself up against the wall, yelping, "Don't you dare!"

But Pipit had found out how ticklish she was, there was no stopping him now. He pounced and sent Karane into a fit of laughter and howls. In a meager form of defense, she thrashed out her arms and legs, trying to kick her friend away, but there would be no escaping. Just like when she was small, she could not escape the tickles.

Yet again trying to escape the onslaught, Karane rolled off her bed. Momentarily, she was free and gasped for breath between peals of residual laughter. But, Pipit too easily was able to pin her to the floor.

"You cannot escape!" he laughed, pining her down and continuing the attack of tickles and giggles.

Karane gasped out, "You win!" in surrender, her laughter so loud and strong that she was having problems breathing regularly.

While Karane recovered, Pipit must have noticed the awkward position they were in. He had her pinned to the floor, his knees on either side of her hips, and her knees bent up behind his back. His face began to turn pink as he quickly got up.

Karane's ears went red when she figured it out and she cleared her throat. Both of them silently decided that tickle fights were not a very good idea.

"Ok so… exams…"

* * *

**Metallic Scents and Green Necessities**

It was a smell in the air that let everyone know danger was afoot. The smell of blood was an irony metallic scent that was easily distinguishable in clean, clear air.

And in Skyloft, being able to smell the blood was so much easily because there weren't many strong aromas in the air naturally. Usually when the metallic smell was detected by someone, they were near the Sky Knight Academy, and it was usually some knight in training being hurt in combat practice.

Luckily, though, blood could only be smelled when there were large amounts of this. This fact was only lucky to the few girls in the Academy, as it meant that a monthly condition would passed over undetected.

Mostly.

In a twist of cruel irony, it would not be the smell of iron, but the necessity of iron that got Karane caught one spring. She was loading up on spinach at lunch one day, because she had become rather anemic and weak this time around. She had to get her vitamins up, particularly because she had been neglecting the leafy green for a while.

"Why are you eating salad?" Pipit asked with a chuckle as they sat down for lunch amongst their peers.

"Because I need the iron," Karane mumbled, trying to avoid the topic.

Pipit still thought it was funny, "What? But you hate spinach!"

"But I need the iron."

"Why?" he chortled. Apparently, her visual frustration was just funny today.

"I'm anemic right now, Pipit, let me have my damn spinach in peace please!" she hissed, praying to the Goddess that none of their classmates around them were paying attention to this.

He looked concerned now. "What! But how, you haven't gotten hurt or anything! You're not bleeding…"

And then it apparently dawned on him, that thing that boys were vaguely aware from their mothers, sisters, or whoever.

Karane gave him a tight-lipped smile of venom and shoved more spinach in her mouth.

* * *

**Fluttering Hearts**

Orielle described love with such a plethora of adorable images. From the story books she read and her own imagination, she had come up with myriad of descriptions for the feeling.

"Its like sunshine everyday, no matter the weather~!"

"Your heart will flutter with love whenever he's there."

"I hear, when you're in love, that everything tastes a little bit sweeter and all you can think about is the one you love and how wonderful they make you feel~"

It was adorable and amusing, the romantic way she would go on throughout childhood. Karane had spent much of their time as kids ignoring her sentiments and only paying enough attention to her romantic ideals to be polite.

But, as they both got older and Karane began to obtain new types of emotions channeled at a certain freckled boy, she began to listen to those romantic tales Orielle loved so much.

And, slowly but surely, Karane found out that they were true.

Her heart DID flutter whenever Pipit was around, and she did spend an awful lot of time things about him and how wonderful she felt when they were together. But there was one fatal flaw.

There was no constant sunshine, and nothing tasted sweet. But, Karane supposed that was the difference between romantic love and unrequited love.

* * *

**Breaking Down Doors**

There had only been a handful of times in her life when Karane had REALLY felt like a failure. There had been the big injury right after she had become a senior, and when Hatchet couldn't fly with her when she was 13. But the moment that had shaken her the most was when Headmaster Gaebora had told her that she couldn't become a senior.

Sure, she had yelled at him and fought for her skill and ability, but in those moments afterwards, she really couldn't know that she would ever become a real knight. After she had shouted at Pipit, for absolutely no reason, and smacked the hat off his head, she retreated to her room and locked the door tightly shut. Just to be sure, she even jammed her desk chair up under the knob.

And she sat on her bed and cried.

Everything she had been working towards and done with her life thus far felt like some giant cruel joke that the world was playing on her. She felt like a useless failure, because now… if she wasn't allowed to continue with this… then she had wasted her life.

It was then that Karane was beginning to realize just how many bridges she had been burning for herself. She had sold most of her parents' belongings after they died, and then sold the house too. It had been an impulsive decision in her rebellious grief at age 9, but she had figured that pure cash would do her more good in the long run.

But she was out of that now too.

Paying tuition had eaten up so much of her funds, that all she had left was the rest for another year at the Academy, and that wasn't enough to live on.

She had no friends in the community she could rely on, because she had alienated herself from most families in the way she treated the mother hens of Skyloft. So there went the option of staying with someone for a little while.

She had no practical skills either. She had chosen to educate herself and do physical training rather than learn some kind of trade or life skill. So she was barely even qualified to take care of herself, nonetheless get a JOB.

As she sobbed against the many pillows piled on her bed, Karane wondered why the Headmaster had even allowed her to START attending the Academy if he never expected her to finish?

He probably had expected her to meet one of the boys at the school and start dating and fall in love, then decide to quit so they could get married later.

"Well," she shouted at the wall, "Joke's on YOU Headmaster, turns out I'm undesirable!"

In an ironic twist, she had found herself falling in love, but the sentiments were not reciprocated. The bitch called Fate had been having a fun play with Karane's life, it seemed.

She would spend what felt like hours holed up in her room, crying and screaming against pillows, trying to vent out all of the uselessness she felt. She had failed, and now she had nothing left to do with herself.

A knock sounded on her door. "Karane, are you ok?"

"GO AWAY!" she yelled, unable to muster a good lie.

The door rattled, but sadly, she had barred herself in and the world out. "Let me in, Karane, please! What's the matter?"

There was no answer this time, as she just went back to crying. She didn't want to give whoever it was the time of day, she hadn't even bothered to TRY recognizing the voice. The person continued to try opening the door, getting progressively more persistent and violent with the lock and the chair.

Yet, somehow or another, Karane felt a hand rubbing her back and someone who cared was kneeling before her, hugging her as she cried. They stayed that way for a little while, until Karane found herself asleep, exhausted from the stress and raw emotion of the day. It had been trying.

When she woke up the next morning, there was a note left on her desk reading:

_Karane,_

_I hope you're feeling better. Whatever it was that had you so down, please don't give up! You're going to be ok. After all, my dad says you're going to be a senior now! So buck up, we can pick out your uniform color together. Maybe something that matches Pipit's, huh~?_

_Zelda_

_PS: Sorry, but I had Link break your door. You might want to get that fixed._

* * *

**School**

The way Karane had started going to school had happened in a flash of noise and speed. Everything had gone so fast that she was not even entirely sure what had happened.

She had been 13 at the time, just turning of age to both start flying her loftwing and to enter the Knight Academy. While she had toyed with the idea in her head before, it never felt like an attainable goal until she asked Professor Hornwell about it.

"Do you think I could go to school too?" she asked him. "Like the boys do?"

It had been a simple inquiry, just to see if it was even possible, but Hornwell had taken to the idea and told her that it was a fabulous idea. He insisted on taking her to see the Headmaster immediately and talking it over with him.

She sat in the chair as the two of them engaged in some very fast paced banter about whether or not it would be appropriate for a girl to attend, and whether or not she could pay tuition.

When asked, she told them, "I have a lot of money from selling my parents' stuff," Hornwell frowned at that admission, "So I could pay tuition I think…"

More banter began and she couldn't keep up with it. She figured that a decision had been made when Hornwell grinned down at her and said, "Shall I show you to your room, dear?"

"I get a room?That fast?"

And she was whisked down the hall, next door to a boy upperclassman. He was going to be a senior next year, Karane never did catch his name. She was too intimidated to ask.

When Hornwell showed her the room, Karane walked in quietly and slowly, looking around at the small bare room. It felt so big compared to always using a spare room at someone's house or an empty section of the bazaar. And what was best of all, was that it was all hers.

"Where are you things, dear?"

"Downstairs," she muttered, "In my backpack…" Karane was still a bit in rapture of her very own dorm room. Hornwell went down to get it and came back up complaining about how she didn't have bedding supplies or a proper toothbrush.

Then, Karane was whisked off again and her professor bought her some basic things, despite her offer to pay for it herself. He wanted to be kind and extend this gesture to her, and she would forever be grateful.

Then, she was back in her room again, this time the bed was made, but it was still very empty. Hornwell finally decided to leave her alone and let her get acclimated.

She sat there in the empty room, leaving the door open, and looked up at the ceiling in wonder. Her little back pack full of trinkets and things wouldn't be nearly enough to fill this place, she thought. She would have to buy stuff.

The next day, another boy showed up who was going to be in school too. The neighbor kid whom Karane had grown to know as Pipit. He came across her when she was in her room, door still open, putting her things in the closet and trying to figure out how to make things look like they were filled up.

"Oh, Karane? You're living here?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess?" she shrugged. It had only been a day, but it still felt temporary to her, the way everything had been so rushed.

"Did the Headmaster agree to board you then until you get older?" he pondered in a friendly manner.

"No," Karane frowned, "I'm going to school too."

There was a pause and confusion. A few other upperclassmen boys looked quizzically in her direction.

"Really?" Pipit asked.

"Yeah… Class starts today at 1pm, right?" she clarified. "Hornwell told me so. He got me in."

The awkward silence of confusion and shock resonated through the hallway, but Pipit just renewed his smile.

"Cool, I guess we're classmates then!" he declared before moving on, going to check in with the Headmaster.

And, just like that, Karane quite suddenly realized that she was going to be a knight now.

And the suddenness of it all did nothing to dampen her happiness of that knowledge.

* * *

**One Thing**

There was only one thing that was utter perfection. Without fail, it could make good any situation better and any bad situation less dismal. Throughout Karane's life, this was proved time and time again by that one special thing.

When she had been a kid, her mom used to make it for her all the time upon request, unless she had been misbehaving. It was the best thing when she was scared, or had a bad knee scrape, or even when she was perfectly happy and wanted something to celebrate.

As a teenager, though, it became something she required regularly, particularly as the days got colder and exams began to be due. When she encountered a particularly difficult assignment, or had a particularly bad social interaction, Karane would sneak down and concoct some of this magical substance. When she began to feel more and more dejected about a particular classmate's obliviousness, she would make it more and more often to sway her teenage emotions.

So after a particularly bad evening of self-pitying confidence downing, Karane made herself a big mug of it the next morning. When said certain classmate asked her, "Why do you like hot coco so much? It's not even autumn yet!"

Her answer was simple: "Because it is perfection, Pipit."

* * *

**Insult and Injury**

Karane was always aware that she was not a pretty girl. Zelda was a pretty girl. Karane knew she was not a feminine girl. Orielle was a feminine girl. Karane was aware that she was not a uniquely appealing girl. Peatrice was a uniquely appealing girl. Karane was aware that she was not an exotically beautiful girl. Kina was an exotically beautiful girl.

So sometimes, she would wonder what kind of girl she was.

The easy answer was the tomboy. One who got dirty and fought and was rowdy, just like the boys. Her choice in schooling didn't help this case. She was often called "one of the boys" by her classmates and friends at the Academy, which, while comforting to know she had earned some respect, made her feel out of place. Karane didn't always want to be "one of the boys." She wanted it to be recognized that she was a girl, but that was not acknowledged very often.

So Karane wondered why nobody called her a girl, and why she was not a pretty, feminine, uniquely appealing, or exotically beautiful girl at that. She was no kind of girl at all, it seemed at times. But still, she was not a boy. Boys were handsome and rugged and masculine and suave. She was none of those things either.

So, when Karane would think about what kind of person she was, she would come to the gradual realization that she was…

An ugly person.


	11. Adulthood III

**Something to Hug**

When Pipit slept, he always needed something to hug. Karane never understood why, but growing up he had always had a pillow of some sort or size clutched in his arms when he was asleep. It was something she looked down on him for when had both been kids, but as they both grew older, she found it endearing and sweet.

Particularly after they started dating, and she became the new object of sleepy affection.

Normally, Pipit would get in from patrol when class was soon to start, only having a little bit of time for a nap before school began. Normally, he'd sleep on the floor of her dorm until Karane woke up for class, in which she tended to kick his foot until he awakened too.

But, today, Karane had to get up early, despite her hatred of doing so, so that she could go turn in her paper to the professor last minute. She had stayed up most of the night finishing it, and as Pipit dragged his feet in for his usual nap, Karane told him to take the bed. She wouldn't be using it.

"Huh?" he had mumbled.

"I have to turn this in, so take the bed, I'm already up," she yawned, moving past him and out the door to go turn in her paper.

Karane lethargically walked down to where Hornwell's office was and slipped her essay under his door. She checked the clock. 5AM, just in the nick of time. With a triumphant yawn, she turned around and began to make her way back to her dorm.

Well, she was already up this early, with a full three hours before class time. Maybe she could take a bath or something. Get a big breakfast. While she was still tired, she knew that she might not wake up in time for class if she went back to sleep now. If she really wanted to be productive, she could always go out to the training grounds.

Karane re-entered her dorm, still yawning. Pipit looked to be asleep on her bed by now, which was good. She went to try and get some clothes out of her bureau, but as she walked by, her hand was grabbed.

"What?" Karane sleepily asked.

Her answer were indiscernible grunts as Pipit just tugged on her wrist until she sat down on the side of her bed.

"What?" Karane asked again, this time more whiny.

He pulled her down until she was laying next to him and the brunette just slung his arms around her waist, pulling her in. He smiled lazily as his long nose nuzzled her messy red hair. Karane smirked as her eyes grew heavy again.

"Idiot," she mumbled, "I'm not your teddy bear."

Pipit chuckled lightly, the vibrations in his chest resonated over to her as they snuggled close. "No, but you are mine."

"I guess…" she began, yawning between, "I am…"

It was a good thing Karane hadn't gotten out of her pajamas that morning to turn in the paper, because she ended up back asleep in bed with her yellow clad boyfriend.

They were both very late for classes.

* * *

**Educations Out the Window**

When the surface opened up, everything anyone in Skyloft had ever known felt like a big fat untruth. After all, everyone had been taught from the Goddess's lore that the surface was a dangerous world that could not sustain life.

Yet, as Skyloftians began to see, it had quite a lot of life already on it. The tiny birds, the Kiwkis, and Mogmas, and many plethora of bugs and other little critters.

Contrary to what they thought, everything was new and bright, rather than old and dead.

This only bothered Karane because she had spent so many hours, just like so many other students, studying over and over Skyloft's books on all subjects. History, geography, and zoology seemed to be the topics most in need of drastic correction. It was beginning to feel like the things she had studied for so long were all just false.

It was terribly annoying.

Karane had always considered herself smart. Not graceful, not pretty, not artistically inclined, but smart. She was proud of the education she had fought so hard for, and it just felt like a let down to have it all have gone to waste, once the surface opened up.

When the surface opened, her education went out the window and crashing down to its rocky terrain, shattering into bits.

Time to start over on repairing it.

* * *

**Every Time**

It was like clockwork, the way he reacted. Every time she had to interact with another member of the male community, Pipit would get some form of jealous. Karane had even been able to chart those reactions, too, over time.

Reporting to or having brief passing conversations with other guys didn't do much, maybe only queue him to hold her hand.

Having lengthy, non-business related conversations with another knight, though, made him get a little fussy and mildly pouty.

Being on patrol with another man made him get a little bit clingy in between their shifts, but he was easily sated with sweet nothings and affectionate nicknames.

When she had to be paired up with another man for sparring practice, he became protectively possessive and might send nasty glares towards whoever she was sparring with that day. If she had gained an injury or a bruise, Pipit might growl and grumble about how incompetent they were. And no matter her physical status, he would demand cuddle time afterward.

But the worst reactions came from when Karane would actually TRY to make Pipit jealous. He would deny all charges and go off in a huff while she went to go have a social life with other men. Usually, only other men. She'd keep the act up long enough for Pipit to realize he had played right into her plan. Then, she would show up in time for him to hug her and insist upon his ownership.

Like clockwork, Karane knew exactly how he would react. And just as predictably, she knew how to keep him calm. Three simple words tended to do the trick.

* * *

**Eldin**

"Whoah…." was all Karane could say as she stood there amongst her knightly peers. They had come to Eldin to get a tour of the land from the local digging creatures who inhabited the area. Karane couldn't remember what they were called, but they had impressed her quite a lot just now.

Debris had been blocking their ascension of the mountain, and their furry guide had assured them, "I can take care of this, no problem."

He had burrowed into the ground and disappeared for a little while. Then, a minute later, he had popped back and told them to brace themselves and cover their ears.

Within seconds, the rocky debris was blown into the air as a fiery explosion. It was a huge plume of fire and noise that was absolutely amazing to see. This type of demolition didn't exist in Skyloft, and it was oddly beautiful in a destructive way.

But it was absolutely amazing, nonetheless.

"Whoah."

* * *

**New Shades**

Pipit's uniform was a color that suited him. It was yellow which not only highlighted his optimistic personality, but also juxtaposed his position on the night time patrol.

But it was his unique color. No other knight wore yellow, and no one would ever really wear that particular shade of yellow, either. It went well with his hair and it made his freckles stand out on his pale face.

Karane liked him in that yellow uniform.

But today, he was not wearing the yellow. Today, he was wearing a different shade for a special event. Karane looked him over when he asked her how he looked in it.

It wasn't the yellow he wore all the time, and it wasn't the various shades of blue, brown, and green that he wore during casual days at home. It wasn't even the same shade as his nice clothes for special events.

She pursed her lips and examined him closely.

This was not a color Pipit wore, in fact she had not seen him in this color since they were both kids. It was a bit strange and bewildering, but it didn't look bad.

She brushed a piece of lint off of one shoulder and straightened his collar.

"Red suits you, Freckles," she told him softly. "You look just like your dad."

* * *

**Missing You**

Sometimes, he would take her by surprise. Given that they wre both so busy all the time, long stretches of days and sometimes weekswhere they hadn't seen each other or even communicated with one anotherhad begun to sprout up. Of course they didn't like it, but they had jobs that were becoming more and more demanding as more and more settlements began to be constructed on the surface.

He would catch her off guard on one of those rare occasions when there was just a small window of time between their shifts. Usually, she was on her way to report for a briefing of her assignments for the day when he would catch her by the wrist and swing her around the backside of the Academy, hidden in the narrow shadowed space between the building and the wall around it.

Before she knew what was happening, his arms were around her and his lips were on her neck, in the small crook of exposed flesh between her jawline and the collar of her uniform. Her arms would instinctively wrap around his neck and pull him in closer, pressing them both tightly together in that small space between walls.

Heady breaths would follow, as she would press her lips to his for long stretches of time, just absorbing his sudden, unexpected presence, and breathing in his scent. Today, he had a slight scent of leather on him, which was appealing to her nose.

When he finally felt satisfied with their contact enough to break apart and form words, he said, "I miss you."

And she would feel her heart clenching in her chest because she missed him too, desperately so. Recently, they had barely been able to speak two words to one another, none the less have time to be alone. But it hadn't dampened her love for him any less, and judging by the compromising position he had her in— pinned against the back wall of the Academy— his affections had not been dampened either.

Pairing Pipit's words with the forlorn, lonely look in his bright blue eyes, which matched Karane's own expression, her own answer was to kiss him again, with as much neglected passion as she could.

It was quickly pushed from her mind that she had somewhere to be, as hands roamed and bodies pressed and breaths came fast and short. These moments were too few and far between for them to pass up the opportunity for even just a few minutes of respite and intimacy. Though, in these moments, Karane had never cursed the burden of chain mail more; it constricted and created a barrier against all the things that did not need or want such restriction during heated moments in the small space between walls.

Only when they both heard other knights walking the grounds around the corner would one of them begin to bring reason back into the mix.

"Pipit… I have to go, I'm already late," Karane reluctantly told him between kisses.

"I know," he sadly admitted, resting their foreheads together. His face was flushed pink from their heady romantic moment.

"I don't want to go," she whispered to him, both their arms still around each other.

"You have to."

"I know."

They spared one last kiss before breaking apart for good. Neither knew when they'd get another secret and irresponsible time to be alone, so it hurt to have to part. Karane straightened out her uniform before she started back for the path to the briefing room.

"I'll miss you," Pipit would remind her, just before she left.

Yes, sometimes Pipit took her by surprise when they had to spend so much time apart. But not knowing when she'd be whisked behind a building was what made it so tantalizing.

* * *

**Dying Lands**

It was in Skyloftian lore that the Goddess Hylia saved her people by lifting their lands into the sky, keeping them safe from the dying world below. That had been common belief for a long time, and Karane had been raised on such mythology.

But then, the sky opened and the world below was exposed. Indeed, on first visiting all of Skyloft saw that the land below was not dead at all. Contrarily, Faron Woods was chalk full of life and greenery. It had fauna and flora galore, all thriving. Even Eldin had some life living in its extreme temperatures.

But, as Karane noticed, the further out you got in this world, the more and more was dead. Lanayru was the end of the line. It had once been a sparkling valley beside an huge ocean and been home to robotic life forms and industry. It had once been green.

Then, tracing backwards, Eldin was craggy and melting. The volcano was active and destructive, its high temperatures and sulfuric smoke was even pushing the Mogmas back from their original tunnels.

Then there was Faron, happy and content being far enough away from Eldin and Lanayru not to feel their sting.

And then Karane realized that what she had been taught throughout her life had not been wrong. The land below had indeed been dying, it just hadn't finished yet.

But now, it was open again. And the Goddess's prophecy had succeeded, and, with any luck, everything would start living once more.

Banned

They only really got banned from being on patrol together, after one specific incident. It was then that the higher ups realized they were far less productive together than they were apart, and it would probably stay that way until both of them settled into their relationship.

They had been sent down to look around Faron, since they were both new knights and nobody knew how safe Eldin was yet.

To their credit, they HAD walked around the entirety of the Woods that afternoon and made sure nothing was wrong before they had decided to take a little break.

But, against their credit, the break had quickly turned into cuddling which meant neither of them wanted to get up, and so they bickered playfully about who should get up first.

Then they got caught.

The witness to their slacking reported it, which was of course the honest road to take, but later that day, after Karane and Pipit had received their demerits and been banned from patrolling together, Karane found the snitch and spoke to him gruffly.

"I could have sworn I told you never to squeal on me again, Fledge," she warned.


	12. Motherhood III

**Eight Legs**

"Mummmmmmyyyy!"

"Dadddddddyyyyy!"

"Mumma, Dadda, there's a thing! Its big!"

"Its big bug, its unnatural!"

Karane elbowed Pipit as she turned over in bed and looked over at the two girls charging into their room. Her tired eyes were a bit bleary, but she sat up regardless. "We have company," she told her husband, who was also groaning awake.

It was rather early in the morning, and considering both Pipit and Karane had the morning off of patrol, they had been hoping to enjoy sleeping in. But, two screaming little girls were preventing that.

"Mummaaaaa!" Lark whined, crawling up onto the bed and clinging to her mother's lap.

Pitta sat between the two parents, opting instead to begin prattling off the events that had transpired. "It was huuuge! It almost ate Lark, Daddy!"

"What was it chickadee?" Pipit yawned, rubbing her back.

"It was as big AS MY FACE!" she declared. "It was ginormous, and it had eight creepy legs!"

Both parents looked at one another and smirked. Yes, the girls were experiencing their very first skulltula, the abnormally large spiders of the surface. After all, the four of them had decided to take a little vacation to the surface this weekend. They were staying at an inn in Faron, letting the two children get acquainted with the wilderness. Apparently, they did not agree with all of it.

"That's a kind of spider, Pitta," Pipit assured her. "It wasn't going to eat Lark."

"Yes it was!" Pitta insisted, "It was on her head!"

Karane looked down at the simpering 5 year old in her arms. Lark had always been the shier of their girls, and so far she hadn't said a thing concerning the bug. "It was on your head?"

Lark nodded, her face pale with the terror if having something that big crawling on her.

"My poor little baby," Karane cooed, holding back the small desire to laugh at this situation. She hugged her youngest daughter close and smoothed out her curly mane of hair. "Don't worry, sweetheart, they won't eat you."

"Yeah," Pipit agreed, scooting closer as he moved Pitta to sit in his lap. "It probably just wanted to be your friend," he assured the girl, leaning over to kiss her forehead.

"I dunno, Daddy," Pitta carried on, her talkative nature getting the better of her, "It was pretty big."

From then on out, Lark was terrified of things with eight legs.

* * *

**Nauseous**

"Ugh…" Karane found herself groaning and swaying as she was making breakfast for her family. It was another quiet weekend morning when they all got time to spend together before she went off to patrol in the afternoon.

"Mumma, are you alright?" Lark asked, looking over her shoulder at her mother, making pancakes.

"Yeah, hun, I'm fine," she said, finishing off the pancakes. She stacked them all up on a big plate and brought it to the table, laying it in the middle.

"Yeahhhh!" Pitta cheered enthusiastically as she grabbed three of the fluffy breakfast treats. As usual, her eyes were going to be bigger than her stomach.

The rest were doled out appropriately, but as Karane looked down at the small stack of pancakes, she found her stomach flipping. She decided maybe she need a sip of coffee, but that made her gut wrench too. Suddenly, everything at the table felt disgusting to her palette.

"You ok?" Pipit murmured to her as their girls began to chatter to one another.

Karane hesitated before she answered. Because two years ago was the last time Karane had felt nauseous, and it had ended with blood and heart ache.

"Rane?"

"Y… Yeah," she whispered back, finally looking her husband in the eye. "I'm ok. Just a little bit… nauseous."

Neither of them said a word after that, because Pitta was pulling them into the conversation with the children, so now was not the time. But, quiet and tender, Pipit's hand found hers under the table, and he gave a little squeeze.

* * *

**Being On Time**

For someone who was never aware of what time it was, Pipit was always on time. Apparently, his first child was not going to inherit this trait.

"Is something wrong with it?" Karane began to frantically ask any experienced midwife or mother or doctor she could find. "I was due two weeks ago!"

She was, needless to say, getting panicked. Karane had had a lot of rising apprehension regarding this baby, and its refusal to show up on time was definitely not helping. In fact, it was making everything worse. There was added time in her bloated, achy state, along with her hormones going particularly insane, and a rising fear that she had somehow screwed up motherhood before she had even started it.

But, everyone told her the same exact thing.

"It will come when its ready."

Well, Karane wanted to know why the hell it wasn't ready NOW. She was so tired and worried that she was honestly surprised she hadn't induced her own labor yet.

Pipit regularly tried to calm her down with gentle words. "Please try not to get yourself so worked up, you both need to stay calm, Rane."

"How can I be calm when I was due two weeks ago?" she whimpered, pacing in their living room and nervously rubbing her giant belly. "Its not right, is it?"

"Just take a deep breath, its all going to be fine—"

Karane stopped pacing and stared wide-eyed at the wall.

"What if its dead?" she squeaked. She had barely been aware that the words had come out of her mouth until they had been spoken, and a harsh silence filled the room.

Pipit got to her a split second before the tears did, and he began to repeat comforting words to her, insisting that everything was fine and that their baby was not dead. But, the idea had been voiced, and now it was all Karane could think as she sobbed beyond control of neither her emotions nor her logic.

"Shhhh, its ok! Nothing is wrong, the baby is going to come, and we're going to be wonderful parents, ok?" he cooed, rocking her back and forth in his arms. "Calm down, Shortcake, you're running yourself ragged here."

But her wailing was halted by her husband's words. No, it was halted by something much more dramatic. She looked up at her speckle-faced husband with her pale blue yes filled with a strange kind of fear and a new kind of panic. Her breathing hitched and her hands began to shake.

"I think my water just broke."

* * *

**Little Voice, Little Song**

Karane's daughters had talents she did not. Even at very young ages, she could tell that they were going to be both very similar to her, and vastly different.

Her girls had fun romping out in the mud and having grandiose adventures with their imaginations in tow. They would both staunchly their family against nay-sayers and gossips. They were both red-heads who each had their own kind of fires to go with the hair. Pitta was an outwardly social and active girl, with a boisterous personality and an enthusiasm for life. Lark was quiet and subdued, but she could be fierce when provoked, as both her sister and the neighbor children had learned. At the same time, Lark was very much like her mother in the department of distress; when the girl was overwhelmed, she would go quiet and try to be alone, which her mother understood all too well.

At the same time, though, they had traits of their father. They liked taking baths after the mud has been squished between their toes. They defended others against bullies more times than they were the cause of said bullying. Pitta, much like her father, was a dancer by nature, and Lark was a fan of cuddling and coddling. They could both get a little clingy, and they both loved so very openly and without restraint that Karane could only see their father in that. Luckily, her girls had not inherited her walls of defensive insecurities.

And then, they had traits entirely new and individual. Both actually enjoyed wearing dresses. Much to Karane's surprise, they WANTED to wear floofy things with the lace and the frills sometimes. More Pitta, in that respect, but both of them could have their moments. Then, of course, there was the skills they seemed to have. Pitta began to show early signs of cooking abilities, which to the normal family was not particularly a skill, but more of a competency. But in this house, it was a Goddess damned miracle. Lark, on the other hand, could sing from an early age.

So when Karane found herself coming home from patrol one afternoon and walked in to see her husband dancing with their oldest, in the living room and her youngest on the sofa singing the the tune they pranced to, Karane just smiled.

She went to the sofa, kicking off her boots on the way, and pulled her little girl, with a mass of curls at her ears, into her lap and kissed her head.

"My little songbird."

* * *

**Lamentations and Celebrations**

There had been three times in both their lives when grief had happened. Twice when they were young, with the deaths of Karane's father and mother. Two years apart from each other, both events had started to bond them together as children. Pipit, being far more mature than Karane at the time, had gained an insight into what exactly she was going through.

Seven years later, after they had grown up together, Pipit's father died and once again, both of them experienced the difficulties involved with loss. This time, it was more of a shock because it had happened outside of danger.

Of course, for all three lamentations, one was affected more than the other.

Later in life, fate would play a parallel hand to the pair.

When they were adults, far from the days of childhood, they had a child. A daughter who was quite a lot like Karane's mother, both would observe. Two years later, they had another, a second girl, who was quiet and subdued, not particularly taking after any grandparent.

While these two celebrations of life had made Karane and Pipit happy enough for a life time, there would once again be a third event, seven years after the first.

Just like Jay's death, the birth of their child was a surprise, and neither of them had even expected the child to be conceived, none the less be born. But, their son had arrived and, as fate had appropriated for the third celebration, he looked a lot like his grandfather.

* * *

**Mothers**

Karane hadn't tried to get to know Mallara until she and Pipit were dating, and it hadn't turned out well at all. Mallara did not and would not approve of her son being in a relationship with the spunky red head, and she mad sure everybody knew.

As time went on, though, Karane hoped that she would warm up to the idea and that the two of them would get along. It would certainly make things easier for Pipit, and deep down Karane didn't want him to have to choose between the two of them.

But, as time played itself out, the relationship between the two only got worse. Mallara constantly encouraged her son to leave her and was criticizing Karane about every little thing whenever she could. Their relationship quickly escalated into an all out war that lasted for an entire decade.

But, after that decade passed, Karane realized that this vicious game they played was not entirely Mallara's fault. While Karane knew that she could be a little bit snarky and sassy, she had never really attributed much fault to herself. After all, Mallara had been the one to start the hostilities.

But now, she had finally bolstered up her courage enough to walk down to Mallara's house and apologize. It had taken a year to accumulate that kind of bravery and nerve to actually BE the one to call a truce. It might make her seem weak, but Karane had spent the past year deciding that it was more worth her time to be nice to Mallara now, after all there were two children involved now, than it was worth her time to be snippy and mean. Pipit agreed wholeheartedly and had assured her that his mother would appreciate the gesture.

So, she knocked.

"Yes?"

"Mallara, can I come in? We need to talk about something."

"If its your toxic cooking, dear, then please come in. I'd hate for your dinners to poison my granddaughters," the older woman said in a too-sweet voice.

Karane took a deep breath, resisting the urges to shout back, and walked in. She had gone to great lengths to appeal to Mallara's good side, and that involved wearing a dress. Her mother-in-law raised an eyebrow but made no other indication that she cared.

The old house was still coated in a little film of dust, but it was nothing compared to the wreck it had been when they had been in school. Karane took a seat, even if it had been uninvited. She wanted to at least be comfortable when she swallowed her pride for this.

"I wanted to apologize, Mallara," Karane began.

"For what, dear," her sugary sweet bite interrupted, "For viciously seducing my son or for turning my own grandchildren against me."

Karane's hands clenched into fists and she forced herself to continue. "No, for the way I have treated you over the years. I admit that I have not been fair you."

Mallara once again raised an eyebrow. She narrowed her gaze and examined Karane, looking for signs of sarcasm or hostility. All she found was sincerity, with hints of frustration, but Mallara stayed skeptical.

"Go on," she said blandly.

Karane sighed and continued. "I think that the reason I have been so hostile towards you is that I have been taking out my frustrations with my own mother out on you…" Karane paused before she admitted, "You are the closest thing I have to a mother now, Mallara, whether or not either of us wanted that."

Silence proceeded. Mallara still seemed to be judging her.

"So I just wanted to apologize for it," Karane clarified. "I haven't been fair to you… and I think all of us would get along much better if we can just bury the hatchet and try o get along…" She paused, looking for any signs of agreement in her mother-in-law.

Karane held out her hand and asked, "Truce?"

Mallara seemed increasingly skeptical and her response was, "I'm a bit insulted you would compare me to the low level that was your mother, but I suppose I can understand your behavior. After all, you were never really raised, more like herded."

Karane pursed her lips and stood up, hands in fists at her sides. Nope, she wasn't going to keep playing this insult game. She left, storming back to her own house in a fury.

"How'd it go?" Pipit asked her when she slammed the front door behind her.

"Your mother is insufferable," Karane groaned, going to her husband and burying her face in his back. Pipit was currently washing dishes at the sink. Karane hugged him from behind. "I tried, I swear. I laid my cards out on her kitchen table… and she took a cheap shot at how I was raised."

Pipit pouted and put the dishes down, turning around and hugging her back. He smiled sympathetically at his wife. "That bad?"

"I think she didn't believe me," Karane muttered.

"Well… give her time, she'll come around," he assured her.

And, sure enough, a few weeks later, Mallara brought muffins up to her son and granddaughters. But this time, she included a fourth muffin, in case Karane was interested.

* * *

**Grumbles and Mumbles**

Pitt a was squirming and complaining in her father's arms. Her tiny arms and legs wanted to thrash, but she had been wrapped up in good swaddling clothes and was unable to lash out and smack her father.

"Why is she squirming like this?" he asked his wife helplessly. Karane was in bed, resting after yesterday's birth.

"I don't know," she said, sounding mildly frantic. They both had no idea what to do with babies. "Does she need to be changed?"

Pipit yet to check, in the process undoing the swaddling that Henya had done. Neither of the new parents could do that yet, it was a developed skill.

"No, she's fine there," he answered, but now Pitta's tiny legs were free, and she began to cry and thrash, kcking her father's face repeatedly.

Karane started laughing.

"This isn't— OOF!— funny!" he argued. "Rane, she's crying, there must be some kind of reason."

"Uhm… ok," Karane focused and hauled herself out of bed with a wince of soreness. "Uhm…. maybe she needs a bath?"

"A bath? Rane, if she doesn't need a new diaper, whay would she need a bath!" Pipit argued, getting a bit frantic. The mild parental panic was spreading to both parents.

"I don't know!" she cried, "I'm trying!"

Pipit sighed and picked up one of the little animal toys they had been given for her and tried to hand it to her. "Here, Pitta, do you want a little play time? Huh? Will you smile for Daddy, pleeeaassseee?" he begged.

The baby wasn't having any of it.

"Oh Goddess do you think she's sick?" Karane blurted, beginning to get mildly hysterical. Both worry and hormones were still effecting her.

"What?" Pipit was buying into it too and began to frantically examine their daughter. "Can she even GET sick this soon!"

"Why not? Maybe its because she was born to late!" Karane declared, paranoid.

"Ok, ok," Pipit breathed. "You hold her, I'm going to go try to get a doctor," he firmly stated, handing Karane the baby. "I'll be back as soon as possible, everything is going to be ok!"

As Pipit ran down the stairs, Pitta's wailing declined into whimpers and whines, and she began to grab and tug at Karane's breast. The new mother felt her ears getting pink out of embarrassment at her own panic. Of all the things they had thought about, they forgot the most basic of baby needs.

She sighed and peeked her head out the door, calling downstairs, "FRECKLES! Freckles, we don't need a doctor, I figured it out!"

Pipit bound his way back up the stairs in a huff. He came back into their room as Karane was settling in for a feeding.

"What was wrong?" he asked.

"Hungry," Karane laughed.

* * *

**A Lack There Of**

Karane had to resist the urge to blurt it out immediately, because she really did want the irony to set in first. But it was just sooooo tempting.

"So…" she huffed, her voice weak. "Any words, Freckles?" As much as Karane wanted to sound as entertained and happy about this as she felt, she was unable to really convey emotions. Everything out of her mouth sounded 100% serious and meaningful. Weak voice meant she sounded as tired and frail as she physically felt, despite how much she wanted to use sarcasm right now. But hey, sacrifices in tonality had to be made when one expels a living human from your nether regions.

"Precious," was Pipit's smiling answer.

"… Really?" she continued, still unable to convey sarcasm. She sounded like she was ACTUALLY questioning him. "I thought… you said that… if there weren't freckles… you were going to…" she paused a moment to better catch breath. "Question my loyalty."

Given her lack of ability to convey the joke in all this and the difficult terms in which this baby was born, Pipit must have thought she was being serious. By the look in his eyes, he thought she was actually worried about him questioning her loyalty.

"NO!" he yelped, instantly moving to embrace her while also not disturbing the sleeping newborn. "Oh Hylia no, Rane, I never meant that, it was just a joke! I swear I would never!"

Laughing took too much energy, but she did manage to roll her eyes. "I was kidding too," she breathed, leaning her head on his shoulders. "Calm down…"

He seemed sated for a bit, but still stayed there with her. "Good. Because I would never question you, Karane, I love you."

"Better not," she muttered, her eyes growing heavy after the very recent physical strain. "I'll kick your ass…"

As she began to drift off to sleep, Pipit just smiled and let her slumber on his shoulder.

There was a hesitation.

"Besides," Pipit muttered to himself, looking down at the new infant. "He might develop freckles later in life."

He never did.

* * *

**Stitches and Seams**

One thing Karane had been able to do well was sew. For whatever reason, she could sew quite well after being taught, but she had never quite taken to any other traditional hobby. She was forever doomed to be simply average or mediocre in all other practical life skills.

But, given that sewing WAS her forte, Karane made use of it whenever she could. As a teen, she had made a secret sailcloth of Pipit, but never really delivered it until too late a time, and she had made her own sail cloth— a far simpler and plain thing in comparison to the stars. When she got older, sewing became a way to repair worn clothes, make gifts for her friends, or, in times of need, stitch up an open wound. Luckily, the last was rarely put to use.

So when she got pregnant, Karane's first instinct was to begin sewing things for it. The only problem was she had to try sticking to gender neutral colors and patterns, because she had no clue what the baby would be.

For the first one, a baby blanket that held the usual Skyloftian crest in the center and a border of various colored loftwings was her choice. She ended up having a girl.

For the second one, she made the blanket with images of various tiny surface birds on it, another variety of colors. Yet another daughter was born.

Years later when she ended up having a third baby, Karane was tired of pussy-footing around the pattern. Her two girls were avidly enthusiastic for their mother to make another blanket and all three of them were convinced that it was going to be another girl. So, she embroidered pretty flowers. Some roses and sunflowers were featured, but lilacs were the main floral piece, given how nice and soft their pastel purple was.

As fate would have it, though, she had a son, and he would sleep under a blanket of flowers until he was three.


	13. Childhood IV

**Worms**

When they had been very small children and barely knew one another, Pipit had once come across Karane while she was laying down in the mud, wiggling around like a maniac.

They had both been quite young, and he asked her, "What are you doing?"

"I'm a woooorrrrmmmmmmm~!" was her mud coated response as she writhed around.

This had apparently grossed out the young Pipit, for even as a child he did not care for mud and dirt being everywhere, and Karane was currently covered in both sufficiently.

"You're so weird," he commented to her with a flinch.

This stopped her worm-like behavior and she scowl up at him. "That RUDE," she insisted, "Didn't your mama tell you not to call girls names?"

Pipit was taken aback. He hesitated before answering, "M… My Mama told me not to call anyone names, because its mean."

"Then quit calling me one!" she commanded, flinging a ball of muck at him and missing terribly. Throwing from your back on the ground was not easy, apparently.

"B-but I wasn't!"

"You called me weird, I'm gonna tell my Mommy on you!" Karane accused, pointing at him angrily.

"But weird isn't bad…" Pipit pouted. "I thought weird meant different… in a fun way."

There was a mutual pause between the very young children, both looking at each other confusedly. After a bit, Karane nodded a bit. "Y… Yeah, weird is good… Yeah." she agreed.

"Weird is good," Pipit nodded in confirmation, "And you're plenty of it."

With a grin, Karane went back to her wiggling.

* * *

**Needs and Wants**

"Mama I NEEEEEEEED it!" Karane whined, collapsing her chin onto the kitchen counter.

"No you don't, NEED it, young lady," she replied. "Nobody does."

"That's not true, I do!" she complained, kicking her little legs in the chair angrily. "I really do NEED cookies, Mama!" Karane tried to convince her. "I'm soooo hungry!"

"Then have some fruit," her mother encouraged as she was cooking up dinner.

"Nooooooooooooo!" was the elongated reply. "My tummy only wants cookies, I NEED them!"

Her mother rolled her eyes and snapped, "Karane stop this instant, you do not need cookies. They are not physical necessities!"

Her daughter blinked at her and the reply was simply, "I don't know what that words meeeeaaaaannnnnssssss, so I do too need it!"

Herine smacked her palm against her forehead. Sometimes, that girl was just impossible. So, the frustrated mother gave in and allowed her daughter one cookie alone, to satisfy the 'need' that the girl insisted was there.

This habit of giving in would lead to Karane's occasional insistence that cookies were indeed a physical necessity, which usually resulted in Pipit baking a batch.

* * *

**A Bad Dream**

That morning, Karane had woken up later than her parents, as usual, and stumbled her way out for breakfast, rubbing her sleepy little eyes. She had come across her mother and father having some kind of serious grown up discussion.

"Please, can't you just ask for the day off? You put in enough hours, I think they'll let you stay home."

"What am I going to tell them, Herine? There's absolutely no reason for me to be off duty! I took a vow, I can't just slack off on it because you had a bad dream. As much as I love you, dear, you're being a bit ridiculous."

"You could tell them I'm sick, or Karane's sick! Please, Stroark, just stay home! I have this horrible feeling that something is going to go horribly wrong…"

Karane yawned, confused by her parents' words, and her father gave her mother a hug, chuckling in his usual happy way.

"Calm down, everything is fine. Its just a morning routine, I'll be back in time for dinner."

With a few goodbye kisses and a hug for his daughter, Karane's father left for work in his green uniform. Her mother seemed to be on edge all day, though. Whenever Karane asked to go outside, her mother would shout at her and tell her she was not allowed to go outside that day. She was forced to play inside, even though inside was boring.

But, Karane put up with her mother's strange behavior. Her father had told her a few times that mamas don't always make sense, but that they do what they do for very good reasons and that someday, she might understand why mamas do what they do. This riddle had not made much more sense than her mother, but Karane would listen to her father and be nice to her confusing mother.

The erratic behavior stopped at around four that evening. She had been starting on dinner, because soon Daddy would be home and he would tell stories and they'd eat. Karane had been sent into the living room to play with her toys for the fifth time that day.

That was when the knock on the door came, and the men showed up mumbling words that made her mother scream.

The next morning, the only words her mother would say were, "I told him not to go. I had a premonition."

* * *

**Allowances**

Karane used to be given two rupees a week as an allowance, as long as she did her chores and used good manners. More often than not, she would be given one rupee a week because her habits of playing in the mud did not count as "good behavior" in her mother's book.

But, she had gotten her small allowances as a small child, and slowly saved her money for a new toy, or a special secret cup cake. It was what kids did.

After her father died, Karane stopped getting allowances. It was a matter of forgetfulness and neglect on her mother's part. So Karane stopped buying herself toys and cup cakes, and she had to start searching the house for money.

She'd scrounge around for a red rupee here and there to buy some food or pay Gondo to fix a broken thing in the house. Usually, the Skyloftian merchants were kind to the little girl who would come to them, covered in dirt and dust, and they would give her a discounted price, or offer free services. It made it much easier for those two years.

After her mother died, though, Karane got one last allowance. She got everything. All the money in jars and drawers that her parents had been saving up. All the furniture and supplies in the house. The house itself. It was all hers now.

She thought about spending it all in one place. She thought about buying all the cup cakes she could eat and all the new toys she could find, and just drowning her grief in material possessions. But something about what Owlan had told her before the funeral stuck.

He had told her, "Karane, you shouldn't have to think about these kinds of things yet. But you've inherited everything. You have to think about your own future and how much money that could cost. Things like an education, a livelihood."

Surprising herself the most, she did think about it. She was only nine, but even she knew that if she spent all of the money at once, she would fastly regret it and become absolutely destitute.

She had to save it.

So, she started selling off items and furniture from her house, claiming that she didn't want to keep any of it. The only things she ended up keeping were her mother's jewelry box and her father's coat. Everything else, she eventually sold. The citizens of Skyloft had all been hesitant to buy the household objects, but the guilt of the situation had gradually given way to the desire or necessity of the sales.

She had even managed to sell off the house, under the prospect of it being ripped apart and made into needed building materials. They needed to expand and repair the Knights Academy, and Karane found that her house did the job nicely.

Besides, the money from the sale added to her allowance. And Owlan had told her about an education and a livelihood. She didn't quite know how to get there yet, but she knew that she wanted to make her father proud.

So she'd sell her things to expand the Academy, because someday she planned on attending it.


	14. Teenhood IV

**Ears**

Karane was always lucky that her tan skin prevented her from having a very visible blush. In fact, her face never really turned bright red unless it was a particularly embarrassing situation, or she was severely overheated.

But there was one place her blush always showed up. Her ears.

Like any other Skyloftian, she had long pointy ears, and like most of the Skyloftian girls, her hair covered many parts of those ears. In fact, Karane tended to TRY to make her ruddy locks overlap with her ears. She began to do this more and more the older she got, and the more embarrassing situations she found herself in.

When she became a teenager, awkward moments just seemed to stick to her, and so her ears would light up like red bazaar balloons more and more often. So, she started leaving locks of hair hanging down in from of her ears whenever she pulled her ginger hair back into pig-tails.

Luckily, nobody seemed to notice that she was having such a problem with her ears. While many of the other kids had blushes that were on their faces, Karane was lucky enough to pass through puberty with an unnoticed flush.

At least until Pipit commented at age 15, "Your ears look so funny when they get red like that."

And from then on out, Karane would never know if Pipit had figured her out, or if he just thought her ears looked weird.

* * *

**Eyes**

Karane had always known she had pretty eyes. It was probably the only thing about herself that she felt confident enough to consistently admit was pretty. Her eyes were a very pale blue that contrasted so nicely with her tan skin and her ruddy red hair. they just stood out.

And what accented them even better, were her dark eyelashes. They framed her eyes well, even if she didn't notice, and they made the ice blue of her eyes stand out that much more.

Sadly, though, Karane didn't exactly notice her eyelashes, nobody notices eyelashes!

But apparently, when they were teenagers, Pipit noticed them. She caught him staring at her in the oddest way. He looked confused as he stared at her face one day after class.

"What?" she blurted, bewildered and self-conscious.

"Oh… sorry, its just… Did you know you have really long eyelashes?" he mentioned. "I never really noticed before."

Karane began to like her eyelashes after that.

* * *

**Concentration**

"Give in yet?" Karane grunted with a smirk on her lips, her eyes narrowed at her freckled opponent.

"Never," Pipit declared, also smiling.

The two were locked in a combative concentration. They had been at it for a little while, before their third class of the day began. They were sophomores now, and had taken to occasionally getting into friendly competitions. This battle was no except.

Karane took a deep breathe and focused on her stance. A strong stance meant you could wait out your foe, she had been taught. You can't be felled if your stance was strong.

But she could see that Pipit was taking the same approach. Dammit, why did they have to share classes again?

Then he asked, "Come on, you know you want to surrender."

Karane frowned, "Do not."

"We're at a stale mate then."

Karane growled quietly under her breath. She knew he was right, but she refused to agree to it. There had to be something she could do.

She moved her feet, trying to adjust her stalwart stance and think, when her foot brushed against his leg on accident. "Sorry," she muttered.

But just when her foot hit his calf, he seemed to loose all tension in his arms, and Karane found herself easily slamming his hand to the other end of the table.

She blinked.

"I WON!" she whooped, pumping both fists in the air. She didn't notice how red Pipit's face had become at the contact between her foot and his leg under the dining hall table, but the accidental contact had won her the arm wrestling competition.

* * *

**Guessing Game**

They were like precise pin-pricks along her skin. They were just ever so slightly there, but they sent a powerful sensation coursing through her skin. Her breathing came uneven now, and her skin grew flushed and hot. He'd be able to tell that too.

"Stop it," she muttered, trying to make him quit.

"Why?" he asked, legitimately confused.

Karane snapped, "Please, just stop that!"

He complied and his hand removed itself from her arm. "Sorry…. I thought it would be a fun game to play…"

The two of them, juniors in the Academy, had been playing the perception test with one another. One person held out their arm and closed their eyes, the other tried to gradually creep their fingers up the first person's arm, and the first person would guess when the second person reached the half way mark.

The only problem with playing this game, was that having Pipit's finger tips gently tip-toing along the underside of her arm was very very distracting. It was way too much of a turn on.

* * *

**Soothing Words**

It was something her mother had always repeated in a gentle, loving manner whenever she cried as a small child. Her mother would just gather her up in her arms and coo and rub her back until the sobs subsided and only quiet calm was left over. It was soothing and had always made her feel better.

It was the same thing she told Pipit, the night his bird forgot to catch him. He had come to her door and had tried to keep it together. But she knew him well, and he was clinging to her in tears within a minute.

Without hesitation, she had wrapped him in her arms and laid down with him, just allowing him to vent his panic. She rubbed his back and gently ran her fingers through his hair, communicating to him how much she cared.

And just like her mother had always done for her, Karane whispered softly in his ear, "Hush, my darling, it will be alright. Just breathe and know you're here with me."

* * *

**Cheesecake**

"Come on, missy!" Eagus shouted, "You wanted into the Academy, now you're in it!"

Karane huffed, pulling herself up from the ground. She was a freshman at the Knight Academy, and she was having problems keeping up with the physical demands. She wasn't as naturally strong as the boys, and it didn't help that she had put up a fight to get into the Academy in the first place.

"Come on, girl," Eagus taunted. it was his job to antagonize his students into finishing the obstacle courses and performing their drills. "Your classmate has already finished, and here you are, only half way through!"

Karane ground her teeth and ran on, despite her heaving lungs. She was at the obstacle wall, and she managed to pull herself up with struggling arms. She was panting and covered in sweat, making her grip slippery at best.

Just as she was hauling her legs over the other side of the wall, her palm slipped and she went crashing to the hard ground again. But this time, there was a sickening snap that sounded as she landed.

There was a moment of silence after the snap had sounded. The other students who had finished the course became alert again. Karane herself was in stunned silence.

Then she yelled, because the pain set in.

It was her first time ever having broken a bone, and her arm had snapped, literally, into a horrendous multiple fracture break. She clutched her broken arm against her chest and was wide-eyed in shock and pain and disappointment.

When Eagus tried to get her up and take her to the clinic, she refused.

"I have to finish the course!" she demanded, tears in her young eyes. "Everyone else finished, I will too!"

And she kept going. Her instructor followed, trying reason to convince her to simply back down. But she was more stubborn than he, and she repeatedly refused, despite how badly and how quickly her arm was swelling and bruising.

By now, the other students had come to watch as she tried to continue on. Eagus sighed in frustration, "If this is your decision, girl, then you dig your own grave. I certainly hope you don't permanently disable yourself."

"I won't!" Karane snapped, hoping it was true. But as she was trying to balance on the narrow plank which ran over a small dip in the ground, she was grabbed around the waist.

"LET ME GO!" she screamed, kicking her legs and using her good arm and hit the person who was picking her up of the plank and drag her inside.

"No!" Pipit shouted back, even though he was taking whacks to the arm and face. "You're hurting yourself!"

The rest of the student body was slack jawed and entertained as they watched the two freshmen fighting. Even though Pipit was only a little bit taller than her, he was managing to drag the little spitfire inside to the clinic. She protested greatly, shouting and yelling for him to stop. But Pipit was just as stubborn when it came to his friend's safety, apparently.

One he managed to get her inside the clinic, he huffed and frowned. His face had some pink splotches on it from her flailing and protesting. He said as sternly as a thirteen year old could, "You can't do stuff like that. Sir Eagus said you could permanently damage your arm!"

Karane scowled back at him, her broken arm now painfully swollen and the bone fractured and loose. It was of course incredibly painful, but she had been trying to prove herself. "I can't quit, Pipit!" she growled at him. "You saw me out there, I'm a wreck compared to you and the others!"

"But you're new," he tried to tell her, "Its ok!"

"You're new too, and you were twice as fast as me!" she reminded him. "I have more to prove, I can't let injuries stop me." She sniffed, using her good arm to wipe the tears of pain and frustration away from her eyes.

Pipit sighed and patted his friend's knee. "Rane… its ok. I know you have to prove yourself, but not like this ok? If you get yourself too hurt you'll have to drop out," he warned her. "And then what will I do?" he grinned. "It'll be so boring if I'm here by myself!"

Karane shook her head at his words. He was trying to cheer her up and it was obvious. But it was still working, even if only a little.

"You're so cheesy, Pipit," she sniffled. "But thanks. You're sweet."

"Cheesy and sweet huh?" he agreed triumphantly. "I guess you can just call me cheesecake."

* * *

**Through the Clouds**

The first time she had descended through the clouds, she had forgotten to breathe. To begin with, the thick layer of clouds had always felt like an ominous barrier between life and death. It had been the boundary between safety and doom for Skyloft her entire life.

But now, it was apparently opened and safe. She had seen Link go through the cloud barrier both ways many times, and Hylia's Temple had fallen through the very same fog of clouds, laying the path that would lead the sky people back to the Earth.

It didn't feel hopeful, though, when you had to fly through the thick clouds. It would blind you for the few minutes it took to sift your way through them, and when Karane did it for the first time, she panicked. All she could see was the fog and mist before her, she couldn't even make out Hatchet's beak in the thick gathering of clouds.

This brought into question, what was she NOT seeing?

The fog was frightening that first time, because it left so much unknown. What if those who tried to reach the surface wouldn't make it? What if, because Hylia had not blessed them for the journey, they would fall into the fog and never come out?

What if it wasn't as safe as Link thought it was?

The fog left questions lingering in her mind. But after the two minutes of chocking suspense, the fog was gone, and all she could see below was the vast world below. The surface.

The first time she had descended through the clouds, she had forgotten to breathe.

* * *

**Precision**

While Karane was the faster and the more flexible, she was not the most precise when it came to the sword. She was a great dodger and was very good at not getting hit, but she tended to make broad, sweeping strokes with her blade rather than the lethal and pin-pointed strikes that won battles quickly.

Pipit, on the other hand, was much more suited for precision. Maybe it was because he was slower and he had time to focus and find the specific point he wanted to hit, but he was much better at precision.

Karane really noticed this when they were seniors, sparring during their day for training, like usual. It was before the Wing Ceremony for the incoming class, and they were going through their usual routine of fighting with their steel swords.

By now, both were skilled enough to use the real swords rather than the fake ones. They both knew how to block and how to pull their punches so injuries never occurred between them.

But this afternoon, as Karane was moving her left foot close behind the right to spin herself to the side and dodge Pipit's slower, better aimed hit, she made a mistake.

It rarely happened, but Karane was far from perfect, so her misstep was not considered out of the realm of possibility. She failed in her dodge, taking both herself and her opponent by surprise.

Yelping, she quickly tried to lean back and avoid the cold steel that was thrusting right at her left cheek. She managed to dodge most of the blow, but there was the thinnest, shallowest or cuts that just nicked her face.

She hadn't even noticed it had happened until Pipit dropped his sword and began to shout in concern. "Are you ok? I'm so sorry!"

"Huh?" she questioned. "Nah, its fine, I dodged."

"But you're bleeding!" Pipit continued, worry written all over his face.

Karane touched her cheek and felt the blood moisten her palm. Well that was surprising.

She chuckled, shrugging it off, "Eh, I don't feel it, nothing to worry about."

But, knowing Pipit, he was not going to let this go easily. He was a worrier, always concerned about everyone. That was expected, and it was how Karane knew that she wasn't a special case with Pipit. They were friends, ever only friends, and his concern did not stretch further than it did for any other classmate.

She reassured him, "I'll be fine, I'll just go clean it up."

Walking inside to get a bandage, she passed by a few underclassmen on her way. The chubby one with the blue hair seemed particularly perturbed at the sight of her bleeding and actually asked, "are you ok? Did he hurt you!"

Karane was confused by his concern. Groose's little lackeys barely showed interest in anyone other than Groose himself, so this was… odd.

"No," she waved, continuing on. "Its just a paper cut, calm down."

But that evening she thought about the reactions she had gotten. Pipit's had been predictable and normal. She met the par for his friendly worry. The other boy's was out of the ordinary. She had not expected the second one.

It made her wonder if she shouldn't give up hope on Pipit. After all, she had spent four years trying to get him to notice her, and by now she was tired of trying so hard. She shouldn't have to try if it was love, right?

She rubbed her cheek where the cut had been and sighed. Maybe she should take this "paper cut" as a sign and move on.


	15. Adulthood IV

**Over the Years**

Karane was lost in thought at the moment, thinking back on all the times in the past in which this had happened before.

The first time, had been when she was seven, the first time she had run away from home after her father died. She had tried to hide away in the bazaar tents, but had found them locked up and blocked off. So, she had taken to wandering around in the night, looking for a suitable place to sleep.

When she had finally settled down under a tree amongst the neighborhood houses, closing her eyes to attempt sleep, she heard his voice. "You shouldn't sleep out here… What if you get sick or a Remlit comes?"

Karane then creaked her heavy eyes open at the neighbor kid from the funeral and scowled. "I'm tired leave me alone."

"Why did you run away?" he asked.

"Because I don't wanna sleep in there," she muttered, rolling onto her side.

Apparently, her attempts at being unseen and unacknowledged failed, because this neighbor kid with the freckles HAD seen her, and he laid down next to her on his back.

"Well you shouldn't be alone, in case a Remlit comes," he told her.

After that, neither of them said a word, but they both camped out under that tree. By the morning, Karane was hugging the neighbor kid around his middle, wishing he was her father.

The second time, they were older by now. They were in school together and were both friends when it happened again. They had both stayed up very late trying to study for all of the tests that came with their Junior year in the Academy, and eventually, sleep was going to pounce on them.

"I swear," Karane yawned, sitting on her bed next to Pipit, "I'm gonna close my eyes for five minutes, then wake me up and I'll be ok to keep studying…"

"Ok," Pipit agreed, also yawning.

But in five minutes, they were both fast asleep, leaning against one another where they sat. Neither would wake up for hours. In the morning, Karane found that Pipit was hugging her against him like a stuffed animal. Her ears had blushed so hotly that she had rolled off of her bed and fled the room to wash her face. She tried to convince herself that she had still been dreaming in the bathroom, and went back to her dorm after that. Pipit wouldn't wake up for another hour, and in that time Karane had been able to get a hold of her raging hormonal reaction.

Then, there was now. They were finally dating now, and it wasn't something to necessarily avoid. This time, they had both been aware of the implications and affections that came with it, but neither had a single regret. After all, Karane had set out a second pillow for him if he wanted to sleep on her bed rather than the floor, and he had finally taken her up on the offer.

So here she lay, cuddled against her boyfriend's chest in the early AM hours, remembering the two other times that they had slept together over the years.

With a smile, she scooted in closer and shut her eyes again.

* * *

**Tracing**

As a sighing teen, she had drawn them all over the margins of her notebooks and had then in her vision whenever the brunette was in sight.

But, as a sighing teen, she had hidden her pages of doodles and had ignored the soft figures in her mind, because he was not seeing them too.

Now, a mere few years of sighing and longing later, she was tracing them on his skin with a lazy smirk.

"What're you doing?" Pipit murmured with a chuckle in his throat.

Karane smiled, her head tucked under his chin as she leaned against his bare chest. "Drawing~"

"I could tell, any reason why?" he chuckled at her, his own hand on her bare back.

"Because," she explained quietly, "I used to draw these all the time in my class notes, and now I don't have to hide them."

Pipit smiled at her then, as they laid curled up in her bedsheets. As Karane's finger continued to trace along his chest, his fingers then began to trace the same hearts against the small of her back.

* * *

**Impact with the Earth**

Storms in the sky were something easily avoided. Citizens of Skyloft would huddle up in their houses and wait out the rain and lightening at their hearths. Stories would be told around the fire and treats would be baked. Usually, there weren't even knights on patrol during storms, because absolutely nobody went out during them.

But on the surface, everything felt more dangerous. The water would fall in sheets and it would flood at all the dips in the land, washing away plants and sediment. There was thunder down here that shook the earth and made your insides rumble. The lightning was what caused that thunder, because of its impact with the earth.

Lightning had become an even more frightening thing on the surface. While in the sky it was indeed a lethal thing to encounter, but still very avoidable if one hid, on the surface, the thunder would shake you no matter where you were.

Karane hated that shaking. It took her off balance and scared her to death whenever it sounded. There was no predictions for the cracks and bangs in the air that resulted in the lightning hitting the earth.

Luckily, this was the only time in her life that she had been caught in a storm on the surface, and she was not alone. Had she been alone, her simpering behavior would have been deniable and nobody would have to know, but given her current company, she was glad not to be stuck alone.

"Its pretty bad out there isn't it?" he sighed. Both of them had taken to sitting down in their cave refuge; better to have cover from the rain after all, even if the thunder and lightning could still find you.

"Yeah…" she agreed quietly.

The lightning broke its way into the sky, through the center of their view of the outside world. Not even a second later, the monstrous crack sounded, giving Karane the impression that the sky was being ripped apart.

Being caught by surprise from the suddenness and noise, Karane let out a small scream, her hands grabbing onto her companion's tunic, knuckles white beneath her gauntlets.

"Hey, its ok," he murmured. He knew she was always a little bit spooked when it came to storms. Just like he would always be a bit spooked by falling. "Its alright, Rane, we're fine in here."

She knew that, but dammit if that lightning didn't catch her off guard every time. She took a breath and composed herself. "Sorry…"

"Don't be," he chuckled, wrapping an arm across her back and pulling her closer to tuck her head beneath his chin gently. "I'll take care of you."

Karane pouted in the embrace. "You shouldn't have to."

"Yeah, well given that you just agreed to marry me," he laughed, kissing her hair. "Will you forgive me if I want to?"

* * *

**Flaws**

They both had flaws, it was easy to say. But Karane always felt like she had more flaws than him. Pipit could be clingy and he was reckless in his striving to always help out. But she was stubborn and hot-headed and reckless for no reason and needier than she let on.

To top it all off, she had many physical flaws to accompany her personal ones. Her forehead was huge, her nose was large, her shoulders were too broad, she had a lack luster bosom, her hair was usually a mess, and she had a huge scar on her left side running from her bust line down to her thigh line. It was large and ugly, and Karane felt that it somewhat embodied all that was imperfect about her.

So the first time they began to get intimate, she was of course, reluctant to show him how ugly she felt she was.

"What are you so modest about?" he chuckled in her ear between heated kisses. "I never thought you'd go timid on me." His fingers were playing at the hem of her shirt, trying to remove it like she had done to his.

"I'm being serious, Pipit," she insisted. He straightened his posture and took a step back.

"Are you ok?" he asked, his voice full of concern. "Do you… want me to leave?"

Karane covered her face with her hands, "No! No… I just…" she muttered, feeling like a fool for trying to vocalize it.

But after a brief moment in silence, he seemed to understand. After all, it wasn't all that long ago that she had gotten the scar. Only a bit more than a year, really.

He put his arms around her and pulled her in close again, this time just holding her. He murmured, "Its ok. I have one too." It was true, he did. He had an angry scar on his shoulder from his own bad incident in the sparring ring.

Hesitantly, Karane tugged her thin cotton shirt off, letting it fall on the floor with the other discarded articles of clothing. She closed her eyes and waited for his verdict.

The scar was long and vicious looking. The skin was pale and tight, looking puckered and pulled. It was easy to see where the needle had gone in and out for the stitches, and it was ugly in contrast with the rest of her smooth skin.

But, rather than playing it off with a joke, or giving her a cheesy compliment, Pipit ran his thumb over it and told her with a quiet, sincere voice, "I don't see anything here that doesn't make you all the more beautiful."

"Then you're blind," Karane told him.

Turns out he was always going to be blind, too.

* * *

**Leaves that Match Her Hair**

As autumn fell onto Skyloft, the air got brisker and colder, the tree leaves would change their colors only a little bit, and the pumpkins that were grown year round began to taste better in the harvest season.

Growing up, autumn had been Karane's second favorite season, because it usually resulted in lots of spice cakes and big meals, and the leaves would change their colors to match her hair. When she was very young, she was under the impression that the leaves changed ONLY match her and her father's hair. She liked to think it was some special time of year just for the re-heads.

Logic set in not too long after she started thinking that, though, and she decided to just enjoy the season for its nice palette shift, regardless of the motive behind such changes.

When she was a teenager, she was often told how much she blended in with the surroundings during autumn. With her hair and her tan skin, her clothes were the only things that would keep her from looking like part of the background. While the people who told her this thought it was a cute compliment, Karane did not agree.

This cued her hatred for autumn, and the desire to wear extreme color combinations, ones that clashed even, during the fall season. She wanted to still stand out, she didn't want to blend in with the background. She wanted to be noticed, dammit, especially by Pipit.

So she took to wearing purple tunics and green pants, or bright blues and reds. Neutral tones were no longer an option, and many of the laundry mothers in Skyloft would comment with derision at Karane's odd wardrobe choices during autumn.

As she became a senior and had a uniform to wear, then she was often stuck wearing green and off-white. While it was not the most flashy of color combos, Karane could not complain. At least she didn't look like a tree.

But Karane found herself liking autumn when she was a graduated knight. It happened one afternoon, on a small walk with her boyfriend. One of the falling leaves had landed right on her head, on top of her beret.

Pipit had plucked it off and smiled. "The leaves match your hair."

"I know," Karane sighed, "Don't remind me."

"I think its gorgeous."

* * *

**Foul Play and Foreplay**

She had put up an honest effort to play chess normally with Pipit after that one time on patrol, but it never worked. It always resulted in her either bursting into laughter at the memory of his rather stupid pick up line, or it resulted in her shoving aside the chess board and grabbing him then and there, because of the memory of what happened after. More and more often, the latter option was becoming the norm.

This soon meant that Karane, if she ever actually wanted to PLAY CHESS, would have to go find a friend or someone else who would be agreeing. She couldn't play chess with Pipit anymore.

When he came across her playing a game of chess with Fledge, Karane could feel the jealousy emanating from his pores. While Pipit didn't say anything at the time, opting instead to leave in a bit of a huff, Karane still ended the game early, telling Fledge that she had some paper work she had forgotten to finish.

She had promptly gone to find her lover and fix this little mishap.

"Pipit," she sighed upon finding him, pacing around the lake. "Are you going to talk to me about this?"

Rather than his usual fast response of grabbing her up in his arms and insisting that she was his, he huffed and kept pacing. "You were playing chess with _Fledge._" he stated.

"I know that, I was there," Karane crossed her arms. "What's the big deal?"

"I thought that was OUR thing," Pipit frowned. "We always play chess together, and… I mean really, _Fledge! _Do I not play chess well, Rane? I'm sorry if I'm not up to par or something."

Karane lifted an eyebrow at him. Apparently he had not caught on to the little issue she was having when it came to playing a game of chess. So she smirked and went to her boyfriend, halting his pacing with a touch to the arm.

"Pipit, I think you need to stop thinking of my interactions with other people as a result of something you've done wrong, and start thinking of them as something you've done right," she corrected him, slinging her arms around his neck.

"What do you mean?" he asked, still a bit pouty.

"I can't play chess with you because you have turned chess into foreplay."

He seemed to catch on then, and his arms went around her waist as his demeanor visibly brightened. "Have I, then?"

"Yes," Karane confirmed, kissing the tip of his long nose.

"Does this mean we have to play checkers now?" he chuckled.

"Only so long as you don't make it sexy," she commanded.

"_King me~"_

* * *

**Nightmares**

She was falling again. It never normally happened, especially not since graduation, but she was falling again in the endless sky. Though the thick clouds, and down down down to the surface below.

She tried to pull out her sailcloth, but it was blown away in the strong wings, and she was falling even harder, closing in on the hard ground that was going to kill her.

She screamed and clenched her eyes shut.

In reality, a hand nudged her, and a concerned voice murmured, "Hey, Rane, wake up! Are you ok?"

Her eyes blinked open and it was just a dream again. She should have realized that, it was always a dream. But she still felt like she would start falling again if she closed her eyes. She couldn't shake that last bit of delirium.

She turned over in bed and clung to that comforting presence beside her, not bothering to speak. He probably already knew.

With a soft smile, her back was rubbed and her fiancee assured her, "Its alright, shortcake, everyone has nightmares."

* * *

**Faults**

"Every rose has its thorns" was the common expression to illustrate that everyone had their faults, but that it was alright because of the blooming flower on top. People applied to everyone, justifying their personal behavior faults, physical faults, mental faults, any fault at all.

But Karane felt like she had to warn Pipit about her own. After all, they were going to be getting married soon, and she had to make sure that he was ok with this.

It had happened when Mallara had once again tried to talk her out of marrying Pipit. She had mentioned, "If every rose has its thorn, then you're just a thornbush with one tiny flower."

The more she thought about it, the more Karane began to agree. She was stubborn and pushy and single-minded when she set her mind to something. She was not particularly pretty, and she was never going to be the completely feminine and matronly type. Karane didn't know if she was ever going to be ready to have children, and she knew for a fact that she would never make a good housewife. She couldn't even cook well enough to feed herself on a regular basis.

On the night before the wedding, Karane had snuck over to Pipit's house. It was too late for anyone to be awake, and it broke tradition for the bride to be seen by the groom 24 hours before the ceremony, but Karane had broken enough traditions in her life not to care anymore.

So she slinked around to the backside of his house and scaled the wall pretty easily, given the blank trellis that stood there. Pipit had been saying that he was going to plant something on it, but Karane was beginning to doubt that would ever happen.

It made for a great ladder though, and she was soon knocking her bare knuckles on his glass window. She herself was only in her nightgown, having done this on a spur the moment decision. Good thing it was warm out.

He was groggy when he came to find her at the window. He muttered, "What the hell? What are you doing here? We're not supposed to see each other, and its like 3 in the morning."

"Are you sure you should be marrying me?" Karane blurted.

"Why are you asking this?" he yawned. "Of course I am."

"But I'd make a horrible wife," she reminded him. "We know I can't cook and I'm not the most attentive of cleaners. I get idle easily and do reckless things. I'm too stubborn to be a submissive, feminine wife…"

"Because I WANTED a submissive wife?" Pipit sleepily chuckled, leaning himself against the windowsill and looking at her. She was still keeping herself balancing on the trellis.

"Do you want to have children?" she asked.

"Yeah. Not yet though."

"I'm not sure I'm ever going to want them," she admitted. "I don't know."

Pipit shrugged and sighed. "Ok. I can wait for you to decide."

Karane frowned at him. There was a pause in the conversation.

"Why are you telling me all this anyway?" he asked, a bit confused as to the point of all this.

"I want to make sure you know what you're getting in to," she explained. "I'm a thornbush, Pipit, you're just gonna get hurt."

"Did you talk to my mother?" he asked, looking at her in a knowing way.

"That's not the point," Karane refuted. "The point is, I'm not a rose with a few thorns, I'm a thornbush with only one rose. I have too many faults."

Pipit just smiled at her sincerely and motioned for her to climb inside. "C'mon," he insisted, "Get in here."

Reluctantly, she did so. Pipit helped to hoist her inside, and they were both standing by the open window in their pajamas. Pipit placed his arms around her like was routine by now. It was just the expected normal for him to do so, and Karane to lean against him.

"Do you know why I want to marry you so much?" he asked.

"No."

"Because," he murmured, "That rose atop the thornbush is the most beautiful flower that has ever been," he told her. "And it makes it all the more worth it."

"But there are still all those thorns, Pipit," Karane added.

"Well its a good thing I'm trained to resist pain, huh?" he said wit ha kiss.

* * *

**Higher**

One of the issues with a new relationship was that everything that used to be considered normal and harmless became intimate and awkward. One of those things was cramps.

Being in the highly physical career that they were, muscle cramps were regular. When they had been just friends, it had been normal to help each other stretch and massage out their legs or arms. Now, though, Karane would feel like there was some kind of taboo being crossed when she needed Pipit's assistance in releasing the muscle tension.

So when she had twisted up her leg in training one day, she definitely needed help getting the knots out. It was torture, and she asked her new boyfriend to help her get the muscles to relax again.

Of course, he had agreed. But neither of them had really THOUGHT about this situation they were putting themselves into. Neither of them had thought about just what that would mean.

"Ok, is this helping?" Pipit had asked, concerned as he massaged her calf.

"No, its higher up," Karane groaned, the twinges of pain still there. "I'm sorry for making this so difficult."

"Its no problem, shortcake," he had assured her with a smile, moving to her knee and beginning to work out the ligaments and muscles. "Is this better?"

"Higher…" she whined, not paying attention because of the pain she was in.

"Uhm…." he gulped a bit. "Ok…" Gingerly, Pipit moved up to the very beginnings of her thigh, careful not to make a wrong move. "Is this good? PleasesayyesohGoddess…"

"What? Uhm, no, almost," Karane answered. She was laying down on her bed, eyes closed up at the ceiling. Pipit had her left leg in his lap, trying his very best to help with her twisted muscle while also trying to avoid that very same unspoken taboo.

With a hefty sigh, the brunette rolled his eye upward as he changed position to her mid thigh, trying his very best to keep this professional.

But, this time, he had indeed found the spot that required relief, and Karane let out a thankful moan. Finally, her muscle was beginning to relax. "Uuuuuaaaaahhhhhh~"

Well, apparently that broke it, and very soon enough, Karane was no longer getting a massage. Nope, her yellow clad beau had snapped, per say, and had leaned down over her, kissing her quite fiercely.

"Mph!" was Karane's only form of response and question as she was pulled into a very heated embrace.

Once Pipit let her go to breathe, she panted, "What was that about?"

"Sorry," he chuckled. "But you've got to be more careful about these muscle cramps. I'm only human."


	16. Motherhood IV

**Proceed With Caution**

"Given your… medical history, uhm, I just want to warn you about how risky this is."

Rubbing her temples, Karane nodded, understanding. "I know… I know. Give it to me straight, Professor."

Owlan smiled sympathetically at his former student and patted her knee. "I won't get your hopes up, the chances are very high that it will terminate itself within the month, and the chances of something going wrong may increase from there."

Karane nodded again. "I understand."

"If it turns for the worst, Karane," Owlan clarified, "It could be bad for you too. I think you should know of your own risks in this. As the only acting doctor of Skyloft right now, I warn you to proceed with caution."

Karane smiled back at him, a bittersweet expression. "Thank you, I'll think about it."

After that, she was dismissed and she went home. She was running a bit late, so she made it home just in time to help wash the dinner dishes.

"Mummy, you missed dinner!" Pitta pouted, going to greet her.

"I know, I'm sorry, sweetie," she sighed, leaning over to kiss her daughter's head. "Why don't you take your sister upstairs then I'll come read some more of that book to you both?"

"Ok!" she chirped, running back into the kitchen to grab Lark and skip them both upstairs.

Karane meandered her way into the kitchen beside her husband and began to help him with the washing.

"Well, you should be happy to know that your children covered your poor bird in mud today," Pipit chuckled.

"Oh no," she smirked. "I bet Hatchet's throwing himself a fit."

"Well, he let me help clean him off. I think your bird might be coming around to me," he proudly stated.

"Huh, took long enough."

There was a hesitant silence for a bit, only the mild sloshing of water and the clicking of the plates. Both of them knew the subject that needed to be brought up, but neither had the guts to start it.

Finally, Pipit's curiosity got the better of him.

"Well?"

Karane leaned her shoulder against his, putting her head on his shoulder as she continued to scrub the plates. "I'm definitely pregnant," she assured him.

"Is it… ok though?" he asked, putting an arm around her waist, not caring that his hand was sopping wet.

"Its… fine," she lied. "Nothing I can't handle."

Both of them knew she was lying, but neither seemed to care. So they stood there in stagnant silence, trying to wash the dishes between their embraces. After all, both knew the risks involved this time around, but both knew that the pay off was going to be worth it.


	17. Childhood V

**Bugs**

On the first of April during Karane's 11th year, she had decided that this year she could pull off a horribly immature rank on all of the children in Skyloft. ALL OF THEM.

But, only if she could get the cooperation and alliance of one certain little boy. A little boy who was skinny and long with a round nose. A little boy who barely spoke, either because he had nothing to say or because the two others he was always around talked too much. A little boy who had a blond bowl cut and had a huge bug collection.

Karane had cornered the boy in one rare moment when he was not with Cawlin and Groose, and had offered him the chance to be in on her mass prank. "Alright, Strich," she had begun, "My bug collection is not big enough by itself for this kind of joke. Its just not," she told him. "But, if you can contribute your own supplies, then we can both go down in history as the best prank Skyloft has ever seen."

The blond little boy had frowned at that and in his quiet voice asked, "But… why? My bugs are nice, they don't need to be involved. What are you going to do with them? They won't get hurt will they?"

Karane had then peered at him oddly. "They're bugs Strich, they don't exactly feel much."

The boy got very upset by this comment and he left, loudly denying Karane access to his bug supplies. "They do TO feel! Don't be so mean!"

"Don't be so stupid!" she had yelled back as he stormed off, "You're just a mindless idiot like Groose!"

"AT LEAST GROOSE ISN'T MEAN TO ANIMALS!"

It seemed to have ended there, and Karane's plans were ruined. She had spent the rest of the day setting her usual April Fools pranks in order and waiting for the day itself to arrive in the morning.

But, when she woke up that next morning of April Fools, snug in her borrowed Academy bed, she found that Strich's bugs did indeed have feelings that could indeed be hurt.

She woke up to a bed covered in ants, and she began to scream and flail, trying to swipe at all of the crawling little beasts. It took her a while to get them all off of her and out of her bed, but Karane had managed to destroy the hoard of horrible insects.

So that day, when Karane was seen stalking around the island, covered in thousands of tiny pink swollen bites, Strich just snickered to her, "April Fools."

* * *

**Two Breakfasts**

She sighed as she stood on the stool in order to be high enough to properly stir the eggs in the pan. By now, the stool just lived next to the hearth so that Karane would be tall enough to cook at it, and all of her necessary herbs and spices were within her short arms' reach.

A dash of salt and pepper then a toss of paprika, that was how she had started to make them. It was the best combination of ingredients in her mother's cooking cabinet.

The little girl whisked away at the eggs, her little arm moving as fast it could. She was huffing and puffing a bit by the end of it, but this was getting easier each morning. She then lifted up the pan by the handle, a towel wrapped around to protect from the heat.

She hopped off the stool and went to the table, setting down the pan and scooping out half of the eggs onto one plate. She left the rest of them in there for later, when she ate her own breakfast.

Karane grabbed the plat of eggs and a fork, then sighed downwardly as she walked down the corridor of the house and went to the big door that led into the parental bedroom.

She opened the door with her free hand and announced herself, "Morning, mom," she grumbled, going over to the bed. Her mother was laying in it like she had been for the past two years. Depression had led to illness which had led to invalid, and Herine had never even showed signs of wanting to recover. By now, Karane was used to her mother's abandonment, but that didn't mean she had come to terms with it.

But this morning, her mother wasn't moving. Her eyes were still closed and her chest didn't go up and down like when she was asleep. This morning, her mother was paler than before, almost grey actually.

Karane slowly walked to her and put a hand to her lips.

There was no breath.

She put her fingers on the spot of the neck that the doctor had showed her.

There was no pulse.

Her mother's skin was cold like stone, and its ivory white appearance made her look like she was made of marble. Karane paused, the eggs were still in her hand.

She looked over her mother's dead body in the bed, letting the realization sink in. She looked like a sleeping statue that just wasn't trying hard enough to wake up. Her pale blonde hair was still shimmering on the pillow, the morning sunlight hitting it through the window.

Karane took a deep breath and lingered on the idea. She just wasn't trying hard enough to wake up… She just wasn't trying hard enough. She hadn't been trying hard enough since Daddy died, and it wasn't fair!

But she already knew that… She already knew it wasn't fair. Life wasn't fair, she had learned that early.

Karane slowly walked back out into the corridor and sat down at the kitchen table. She took up her fork and began to eat her mother's eggs, some small tears stinging at her eyes. When she finished the plate, she looked to the pan, still holding another helping.

Karane decide that today she deserved two breakfasts, and she began to eat that helping too, crying quietly as she did.

* * *

**Fairy Tales**

When she was tiny, her father once told her a fairy tale about the surface world. About the way Hylia had originally made it, with forests and oceans as fast as the sky. She had been enchanted by these tales of the ancient surface world.

Her father had told her about everything that lived there, too. About the mystical Dragon Guardians of lore, and the way humans used to interact with the earth. He told her that Loftwings had been Hylia's gift to humans— giving them a lifelong companion who would never abandon them. He told her about the forest creatures that all looked like plants and made cooing sounds to fill the trees with song.

But what made Karane's eyes sparkle was whenever he told her tales about the water people.

Her father had spun many tales of princes and princesses from all different walks of life, but Karane's favorite stories involved the water people that her father insisted had lived in Hylia's vast ocean. He told her about their love of music and how they could swim like fish, but were as tall as a human. He told her that the women laid magical eggs that would hatch and the babies came out singing. He told her tales about the ocean princesses and the warriors who fought for them.

Those were the stories that Karane loved the most. When she was tiny, she would fall asleep and dream of the ocean people with blue skin and fishy fins swimming through the sea. To her, all the ladies wore pearls, like Mama only did for fancy occasions. To her, they all wore blues and greens to match the water that they would glide through. To her, they danced together in sea, letting the waves carry them through waltzes.

But when the surface was actually opened and Hylia's ocean had been turned to dust, Karane's dreams of her youth felt undermined. There were no more of Hylia's ocean people.

But Karane did not doubt that they had ever existed. When she went to the huge lake and met the aquatic inhabitants of it, she smiled to herself and knew.

The ocean people had always been there, but her father had made them seem much bigger than they were.


	18. Teenhood V

**Freckles All Over**

Some things just inevitably happened when you were one of only two girls in a school of boys. It was the natural occurrence to be tom boy-ish and become accustomed to the lewd humor of most teenage boys.

And, of course, there were plenty of strange incidences in which Karane happened to be in the room while Groose was having a session of pants-ing under and upper class men alike. Luckily for Karane, though, being one of two girls gave her immunity to these kind of sophomoric antics.

But there was one incident that, despite having avoided it for almost three years thus far, was also inevitable to happen.

Really, it was her fault. She had gotten too used to a certain routine, and you can't just assume that your routine will stick in the Knights Academy. There was always some unexpected shift in the system. This time, it was all about Karane's bathing schedule.

It was the evening, after dinner hour, and according to Karane's carefully constructed mental time table of when other Academy students bathe, the washroom should be completely open. After all, this was the time when she went to take her normal bath during the week. Nobody was EVER in there.

So when Karane opened the door to the bathroom, herself only in a towel, she did not expect someone else to be in there. But, she hadn't knocked, opting to walk into the room she assumed to be empty.

She was met with someone else already in there to bathe. A certain someone whom Karane had happened to have been crushing on for a few years now, and a certain someone who happened to be naked.

Completely.

Naked.

In the span of a second, Karane's eyes went wide to quickly absorb the image of her nude classmate, her ears and cheeks both went red, and she let out a shocked scream.

"AHHH!" was Pipit's reaction too, grabbing for a towel.

"AHHHHH! OH GODDESS!" Karane immediately spun around, "AHHHHH! AHHHH!" she was beyond words at the moment, her hand over her eyes, as she ran out the door.

Karane ran all the way back up to her room. She was silently praying that she could pretend this incident had never happened tomorrow, but right now the image was burned in the back of her mind.

She sat on her bed, catching her breath, a hand on one of her flushed cheeks. Karane hoped that by tomorrow she'd be able to pretend it had never happened. But for now she was distracted by that mental image.

Turns out, Pipit had freckles e_verywhere._

* * *

**Needle and Thread**

Karane had always been good at sewing. It was the only practical application she had skill in naturally. There was just something about stitching together pieces of cloth to give it structure and form and design that she naturally understood.

So when Zelda was in need of assistance in making her costume to the play the Goddess, she went to her older friend with the nimble fingers.

Really, it was more of a time issue. Zelda had to do detail work and she only had two days before the ceremony in which to finish all the embroidery. It was not going to be easy. Even though Karane had exams to study for, she had agreed. How could she not?

So the two were pulling an all nighter in Zelda's room, sewing the golden trimming on the magenta dress. Bags under their eyes as they went, telling each other the silliest stories they could think up.

"Where did you learn to sew anyway?" Zelda had asked with a yawn.

Karane shrugged as she fed the needle through the fabric, pulling behind it a train of shimmering golden thread. "I dunno, I just always have known. Maybe my mom actually taught me and I blocked it from my memory," she dryly joked.

Zelda frowned a bit, knowing the rough history Karane had with her mother. "Well, you're good at it," she assured her, her own paler fingers taking the same rhythmic path Karane's did.

After a few more pauses, Zelda asked another question, still trying to make conversation as they both slugged through the embroidery work. It was getting close to four in the morning. "So, if you're so good at sewing, do you make your own clothes?"

Karane laughed tiredly, "Not really. That takes a lot of time and I don't exactly have that. I only make things that are special, yknow? Like how you're making Link that sailcloth," Karane teased.

"Hey, you can't prove I'm making it for him, he might not win," Zelda refuted.

"Oh, so is it for Groose then?" Karane snarkily remarked.

The blonde narrowed her eyes cheekily and quipped, "So did you make _Pipit_ a sailcloth then?"

Karane's own pale eyes narrowed in return. Both the young women were rather spunky people and they tended to enjoy some of these little wit battles. "Ha. Ha. I never got picked as the Goddess."

"Doesn't mean you didn't try," Zelda teased jokingly, unaware of how true it had been.

Karane laughed it off though. "Yeah, whatever. The last thing important I sewed was fixing up my hat and my tunic," she corrected. "So calm yourself down there, missy."

Zelda quirked an eyebrow as they both kept threading the golden embroidery through. They were almost halfway done now. "I think you should make something new. Something special."

"Like what?" Karane yawned, half interested.

"You should make yourself a dress."

"Heh, excuse me?" Karane responded, looking at Zelda as if she were nuts. "Pardon me, Miss Lovely, but have you seen my figure lately?"

"Of course I have," Zelda began to interrupt, trying to be encouraging to her friend. "You have a very pretty figure, Karane!"

"I do?" Karane gasped in melodrama. "Can you please tell me where it was when you saw it? I think its lost, Zelda, really!"

The sarcasm was not appreciated. The blonde shook her head. "I'm serious though, you don't have a dress do you?"

"Why would I? Dresses are hardly practical."

"Well not always, but they're beautiful and comfortable and its good to have one around, just in case you want to feel pretty," Zelda reasoned. "I think you should make one."

"No."

"What if I bought you the thread?"

"No."

"What if I bought you the fabric?"

"No."

"What if I bought you both, AND a pattern?"

"No."

"What if Pipit thought you'd look good in one?"

"…" Karane glared at her friend. Of course Zelda knew about Karane's growing attachment to the freckled senior. All of her friends had figure it out by now, it was getting to be fairly obvious.

Zelda grinned devilishly. "I take that as a yes."

"No you don't," Karane refuted.

But apparently, Zelda already had it in her head. And being the rather mischievous girl that she was, she hopped up and ran out of the room. Karane yelped and tried to scramble after her in an attempt to stop her, but Zelda was too quick. She was out the door and padding down the hall.

Karane flew after her, both of them heading for the big wooden double doors that led outside. Zelda trying to exact her scheming plans, Karane trying to stop her.

"I SWEAR TO HYLIA, ZELDA IF YOU—" But the red head was cut off when the double doors opened form the other side, and the yellow clad patrolman in question came through.

Karane skidded to a stop on the stone floor, but being in her socks, she slipped and thudded on her bum, looking frantic. Zelda on the other hand, managed to stay up right and keep her composure.

"Pipit! Just who I was looking for!" she chirped.

"Oh, hi," he yawned, probably more tired than they were. "What can I do for you?"

"I need your opinion," Zelda began, clasping her hands together eagerly. "What color do you think would look better on Karane? Blue, or green?"

Pipit looked a bit baffled, but maybe because he was so tired he didn't want to question this strange situation. "Blue," he answered with a small nod of his head. He added in, his voice sounding half asleep, "Light blue, it matches her eyes."

Zelda's grin widened and Karane just huffed, pulling herself off the floor, "The answer is still no, Zelda!"

"Nonsense," the blonde insisted, linking arms with her friend and turning. "The night patrolman has answered, and if he thinks you need a light blue dress, then you need a light blue dress!"

Zelda wouldn't have the satisfaction of saying "I told you so," though, for another year and a half.


	19. Adulthood V

**Fighting**

Karane had fought to get where she was in life. She had fought a system of education and training which had not allowed women into the ranks. She had fought her peers to get the respect she deserved. She had fought countless monsters and enemies to defend those she had sworn to.

Years later, all of her fighting had earned her a place of respect and dignity. She was now Commander of the Fifth Division of the Sky Knights and had her own team of soldiers. She was a senior level officer now, and she was no longer having to fight to earn a place.

But, as Karane was finding out, the young women who followed in her footsteps inherited some of her struggles too. At some point, she had gone to Eagus and asked about the sparse handful of young women who were enrolled. It became arranged that the three graduating girls were going to be put under Karane's division for now.

When the young women had gathered for their first day on the job, Karane had met them in a more informal tone than they expected.

"So, ladies," she had begun. "I hear you just graduated."

They nodded, a bit confused by this. Their Commander had met them in the training grounds, away from the rest of the Fifth Division. It was definitely not standard procedure.

"Its been rough on you, I'm sure," she mentioned, leafing through a file which held their transcripts and records. "As I'm sure you all know, I've been through the very same thing. And I can tell you that its not going to just get easy," Karane sternly stated. "Ever." Her blue eyes lifted to scan the three of them. One was in a dark blue uniform, another in rusty orange, the third in a steel grey.

"You're going to keep fighting, ladies, and not just because its your job to defend Skyloft and the Surface," she clarified. "I've been fighting since I was seven years old, and I don't plan on stopping. I've got three kids at home, and that means both their parents are Knights," Karane told them. All three of them were a bit wide eyed, wondering where she was going with this. "But two of them are girls, and they, just like every other little Skyloftian girl, deserves to know that they're worth far more than just their birthing hips."

The three new knights were beginning to understand and they all nodded slowly but kept silent to keep respect.

"So those berets you're wearing," Karane continued, gesturing to what was now considered the female uniform of Sky Knights, "Mean a lot more than you think they do. And you're going to have to fight to keep them. There are going to be plenty of women and men alike telling you to stop fighting, but you can't give up that easily," she concluded.

"Because unlike the men you'll be working along side, we women have a lot more to fight against in this world." Karane paused a moment, thinking about her own legacy of fighting. She had fought her Headmaster, she had fought her classmates, she had fought her enemies.

But along the way, she had made friends, met the love of her life, and made a family. From all of that fighting, she had gained an awful lot of allies to help her along the way. She finished her small speech with a smirk, "But I promise you, its well worth the battle."

* * *

**Between Earth and Sky**

On the surface, the rainbows looked different. Before, they had just been simple beautiful little arches in the sky. They were just kind of there.

On the surface, though, they became more than just a colorful arch in the sky. They were huge bridges! They seemed much bigger on the ground, and Karane marveled when she saw one for the first time. She was on the small cliff before Lake Hylia, the wall of waterfalls in the back.

From these waters, there was a long, thick bridge of colors, gently stretching upward towards the sky. Towards Skyloft.

Karane smiled softly at the rainbow then. It felt like so much more than a refraction of light now. She was beginning to see why many people referred to rainbows as the Goddess's paths to heaven.

* * *

**Lingering**

"What do you mean she's 'very sick,' Professor?" Karane asked, having unfortunately heard the news from the talk of the town. Word tended to spread faster through the gossip vines than it did through those meant to tell it.

"Well…" Hornwell began, looking downcast and tired. He had been up with her for days, lancing the wound and draining the infection. Karane had only found out about it so late because she had been on a scouting mission on the surface. Had she known, she would have brought back herbs.

"She's not doing well," Hornwell sadly admitted. "She's gotten some kind of infection from the surface… it was only a scratch at first but… I've never seen this kind of illness before."

"What… what does that mean?" Karane stammered.

"It means that I hope Fledge can find the correct herbs needed in time," Hornwell murmured.

Karane felt the world go numb.

Orielle couldn't be dying. That was simply impossible! She was always the sweet, gentle girl. Everyone loved her and she was so good with medicine that she had always been quick to recover. Orielle had always been the one to heal others, not the one to need the healing! For Hylia's sake, the girl had saved so many lives with her balms and tonics, why couldn't her own be spared!

Karane felt her breathing get quick as she looked over to the sick bed in the medical room. There was that petite girl she had grown up with. Her thick brown hair was no longer in its braids, it was let down while she was asleep beneath the white sheets.

She looked so pale… So, so pale.

Karane cautiously stepped over to her and sat in the chair beside her bed. Luckily, Orielle was breathing. Not so luckily, her breathes were ragged and wheezy. It was obviously a strain on her to be inhaling. Karane felt her chin quivering.

This wasn't fair! Orielle was still so young, and she had so much to still live for! She had a brother, a family. She had friends who cared about her. She had the loftwings who had all gotten to know her so well that they flocked to her whenever they were given the chance.

Karane tucked a stray bit of her hair behind her ear. "Ori…" she whimpered, feeling the girl's forehead. It was as hot as a boiling pot. the infection was bad.

"Ori, please don't die," Karane begged. "You can't just die… What would Parrow do without you? You know he's a mess in the kitchen…" she gulped, her throat feeling dry.

"And Hatchet will never forgive you if you leave him alone with me all day," she choked out, trying to keep the inevitable sobs at bay. "And… and what about finding your true love? Remember, you have to do that, Ori! You can't die and leave your soul mate all alone in the world…"

By now, Hornwell had left to go get a status report on how Fledge's mission was going. The timid Knight was actually very good at performing emergency errands such as this by now. He was very useful. Karane only prayed that he'd be here on time.

"What about me, Ori?" Karane cried quietly. "If you die, then I'm never going to make it! You're supposed to be my medic, Ori. You always fix me up… Nobody else would ever live up to your standards…" Karane took a shaky breath. "And don't forget, Orielle… you promised me that if I ever ever have kids you're supposed to make sure I don't die in childbirth. Don't leave me like that, Orielle, I'll be a wreck without you."

For a long while, Karane just sat there with her. Hornwell came back in, Owlan in tow, to check up and drain the pus from her wound again. At many points, Parrow filed in and out, frantic beyond belief and unable to stand still, nonetheless see his baby sister like that.

At some point, Karane found him in the hallway to give him a comforting hug and offer her prayers. He appreciated the gesture. "You two have always been close… even if you did cut her hair off."

Karane let out a sorrowful chuckle, "Yeah… But Fledge is searching for the right herbs as we speak… She's not dead yet, Parrow."

"I know…"

She had left him to his pacing again after that, but she hadn't built up the courage to go back into that room. The room smelled of illness and impending death and Karane couldn't stand seeing Orielle like that.

When Pipit got off patrol, he showed up immediately. He hadn't even changed out of his uniform. He met her in the hallway outside the room.

"How is she?"

"Bad, Pipit… She's burning up."

For a little while, he had stayed with her. He had hugged her for a few minutes before offering her the joint strength to go back in. they went in together, and Pipit had a chance to see her in her fevered sleep.

It was just as jarring for him, no doubt, but he was better at keeping tears in that she was. Karane had held his hand the whole time, fearing that any moment she might stop breathing.

Pipit stayed half an hour before he kissed her goodbye and said that he was scheduled to join up with Fledge and help get the supplies quicker.

The world seemed to move in slow motion after that. The Professors were in and out to give her treatment, Parrow was pacing in the hall, and Karane lingered in the doorway. All she did was linger. Linger and watch the gentle hearted girl she had know for so many years fading from the world.

Of course there was still that chance that she would live.

But Karane couldn't help but look at her face and think that these were going to be the last hours of Orielle's life. Orielle, who had always been a good fiend. Who had helped Pipit propose to her, for crying out loud. Orielle had been such a fantastic friend, it was gut wrenching to see her like this.

When Fledge and Pipit finally returned, morning was dawning. They rushed in and Hornwell began a new kind of treatment that may or may not work. Karane couldn't find words to say or questions to ask. She held her breath for minutes at a time, just trying to keep it together. Live or die, it was her little sister's fate that held in the balance, and she wasn't sure she was ready to handle the worst possible option.

So she lingered in the doorway, waiting.

* * *

**Homewrecker**

It had been admittedly very weird to find the four sizes too big tunic under the bed when she had been trying to clean up the room. Being still very young newly weds, neither of them were particularly apt at putting their laundry in the hamper. Both came home from work and would toss the dusty and dirty clothes right on the floor. This meant that every week or two, one of them had to pick it all up and wash it.

Karane had gotten the short straw this time.

And she had found a few huge tunics just lying around amidst the rest of their collective dirty laundry. And Karane had no clue what they were doing there.

So, she had decided that laundry could wait one more day and she waited up for her husband to get home. When he did, coming up to their bedroom and beginning to engage in that ritualistic bad habit of tossing aside laundry, Karane gave a loud "AHEM."

Pipit looked at her confusedly because she had laid out on the bed the four over sized tunics. She looked at him with one eyebrow raised and a smirk on her lips.

"Tell me, Freckles, were you planning on getting fat in the near future?" she quipped.

Pipit chuckled tiredly and began removing his chainmail. "Heh, nah. Really, its a funny story, Rane. See I ran into Groose the other day and—"

"Whoa, I'm gonna stop your right there," Karane interrupted, narrowing her vision. "Groose's dirty laundry are on my bed?"

"Uhm… yes?"

She immediately shoved the tunics back onto the floor. "Continue."

"Right, well, I ran into him a few days ago, and well, you know how he's been spending so much time on the surface?" Pipit explained, pulling off his socks.

"Yeah?"

"Well, it would seem that he has forgotten HOW do to his own laundry," Pipit laughed.

Karane shook her head, "Why am I not surprised that he forgets how to be a functioning member of society?"

"Yeah, well, I agreed to do some of it for him. I figured we could afford to help the guy out, sorry I forgot to tell you," Pipit chuckled.

Karane pursed her lips amusedly, looking from the tunics on the floor to her husband. Hmm, this was the perfect chance to tease the hell out of him.

"Pipit," she stated, standing up, "I refuse to do your boyfriend's laundry."

"WHOA, hold up, WHAT?" Pipit sputtered, chocking on air. "Excuse me?"

Karane smirked devilishly and continued, "Well its obvious that your little story is a very flimsy excuse to try and hide the cheap, tawdry affair you've been having with Groose. I mean REALLY Pipit," she insisted sarcastically, "Look at him. Those big strong arms, rippling pectorals. Hell I'd do him if you two weren't so gay for each other."

Pipit's face swelled up as he tried to hold in the laughter that ended up exploding from his mouth. "HAHAHAHA! Oh my Goddess, Rane, you are hilarious!"

Karane narrowed her eyes at him and repeated, "I'm still not doing your boyfriend's laundry. I refuse to wash the garments of that _homewrecker_."

Pipit sighed and shook his head, running a hand through his hair. "Uh-huh, ok. One problem, I don't have any boyfriends, Shortcake, I only have you."

With a smirk, Karane sauntered over to her husband and grabbed him by his linen collar. with a wink she instructed, "Why don't you prove it to me?"

* * *

**Sharing**

She didn't do this particularly often, but sometimes Karane would get off of work and be such a mess that she just couldn't wait to get clean. So, she would break her schedule and routine and a few rules, and borrow the Academy's washroom.

She was careful to make sure she did it only when she got off of her patrol shifts when the students were in classes, it was the only way to not get caught. She'd double check the halls and make sure that all was quiet.

When she was sure that nobody could see her, she slipped into the bathroom and kicked off her boots. It was still quiet as she tossed aside her beret and began to strip off the numerous layers of the Sky Knight's uniform.

Once the accursed layers had been done away with, she slipped into the basin filled up with warm water. A sigh escaped her lips as she just let herself soak in the hot, relaxing water.

Normally, she was in and out pretty quick to be sure that she wouldn't get caught, but today Karane found herself too tired to make this a fast bath. The water was relaxing her muscles so nicely that she began to doze off in the peaceful steam of the bathwater.

She wasn't entirely sure how long she had been dozing, but she was roused awake by the sounds of splashing and someone joining her in the bath.

She yelped in shock and nearly screamed, moving to cover herself, but she was met by light laughter and a comforting arm around her back.

"Calm down, Shortcake, it was only me," Pipit laughed. Apparently, he had found out about her little habit of borrowing the Academy's bath.

She sighed in relief, but still shot a glare at him. "Can I ask what the hell you're doing in here?"

"I thought that if you're going to be using the Academy's bathroom, which is against policy might I add, you should at least share," he grinned, scooting closer to her in the small bath.

Karane pouted humorously and leaned against her boyfriend's side. "I see you're going to blackmail me then, hmm? If I don't share you're just gonna squeal on me, aren't you?"

Pipit shrugged, teasing her, "I'm considering it. So, how about it, Rane, are you will to share this lovely little secret of yours?"

"Do I have a choice wen you're already here?" she chuckled.

"I guess not," Pipit grinned, kissing the side of her head.

At least Karane didn't mind sharing.

* * *

**Stepping Stones**

There had been so many firsts for them, like stepping stones along a path. Those stepping stones had led them through many places, good and bad, up and down. For a very long time, the paths had simply been parallel to each other, letting them observe each others' paths as they followed their own.

As children, they had been stepping stones had felt so big then, when they had been so small, and just trying to get from one first to the next was more of a physical labor than anything had experienced their stepping stones separately then, barely acknowledging each other. Until one day when he was led closer to her path at her the death of her first parent. By then, they were still far apart, but if they stretched out their arms they could hold hands.

Their paths grew closer as they entered the Academy, plenty of room was left between for friendly nudging and teasing as they both experienced their first exams, their first sparring fights, their first major injuries. They both made new friends too and were able to look at many other stepping paths of so many other lives, but they always seemed to be closest to each other. Maybe it was because of how close their paths were that she experienced her first crush as one of the steps along her way. The short distance between them was suddenly filled with secret longing rather than simple friendship.

And for years, their paths were stagnantly like that, only a small way apart. Well within sight and hearing as they helped each other step from one stone to the next. But, as they grew older, the size of the stones seemed to grow smaller and the impending firsts no longer seemed so dangerous or embarrassing. Gaining courage with age, their paths led even closer and they had their first dates, felt their first loves and gave their first kisses.

But once they had taken those small steps, there was a big one looming in the distance. For a little while, they had both mutually pushed it back along the path, opting to have their first patrols and first visits to the surface instead. She met his mother, as his girlfriend, for the first time and that had certainly helped to shove that big stone into the horizon.

But it was always there, they could always see it. And after thinking and waiting and letting the desire build up, that big stepping stone felt more achievable that it previously had. It was no longer looming, it was patiently waiting for them to catch up to it on the path.

Getting to it proved a bit difficult for them both. It required them both to be completely vulnerable for the first time. She knew that it was her first time to ever be doing this, especially with him, and she had to, for the first time, admit to having hesitations and willingly show him all of her scars and skin.

But luckily, it was not the first time he had held her or kissed her or given her some comfort in a time for need. No, luckily for them both, he had been offering his hand to hold since they had both been very small on their very big stones, stretching their arms between the paths to reach.

So together, they had removed all barriers, physical and mental, and they had experienced each other completely for the very first time. She had allowed him to make love to her this time, for the other way around was meant to be a very different stepping stone in life, and he had been tender and loving to help ease the pain.

She had laughed with him after they had finished, both of them too happy to do anything else, but when the laughter had turned to sweet kisses and whispers, it had sunk in for them both that now, their stepping stone paths had joined into one. That was why the stepping stone they were on now had been so big and every stone after it was so large too. From then on out they were making room for each other in all of their firsts. First promotions, first houses, first fights, first marriages, first children, and many smaller ones between.

They both knew that from that point on, until one of them died, they were on the same path through life. Neither of them wanted to turn back, neither of them wanted to deviate. They wanted it this way— taking each first one step at a time.

Together.

* * *

**Three Days**

"Pipit, you really don't have to get so upset about this! He was my patrol partner for today, all he did was offer to buy me lunch. It was a harmless gesture between friends!"

"But you _know_ that it bothers me, why would you do it?" Pipit scowled.

"Well I DO try to have a social life," Karane countered snarkily. "Its nice to have friends, yknow."

"I know that, but can't you have… _female_ friends?" he sighed, rubbing his temple.

Karane frowned back at him. "What, do you not trust me or something?" she snapped. Pipit's little jealousy problems had been getting on her nerves lately. He over reacted to anything involving another man, and Karane was tired of hearing it because she worked in a feild of all men. Men were inevitably going to be present in her life!

"No! I trust you, you know that! I just don't trust all of them," Pipit clarified.

Karane scoffed, "Ok, so then you don't think I can stand up for myself?" she accused, her voice raising. She was irritated and her hot headed nature was getting the better of her.

"You don't think I'm capable of resisting the charms of other men? Because that's just the kind of woman I AM, isn't it, Pipit? OBVIOUSLY I cannot help myself around other men and I just want to sleep with all of them!" she accused, sarcasm ripe in her aggravated tone.

That was when the yelling had started, and Karane could no longer remember what specifically had been said. The only thing that mattered was how the discussion had ended.

"I'll make it real easy for you, Pipit," Karane hissed, "You won't have to worry about me cheating on you anymore. In fact, I think your mother will LOVE the solution!"

"What do you mean?" he has asked, his voice serious and furious.

"I'm leaving," she snapped, turning to head out the door and stalk out of the house.

Karane went straight to Kina's, because Kina was the only one with a spare bed and the only one who had no taste for sensible behavior. As Karane knew would happen, Kina offered her womanly solidarity through the eternal sisterhood of females. She offered sugar and alcohol and a shoulder to cry on and neither of them got to sleep much before 3 AM.

The next day, Karane went to work like scheduled. When her patrol partner had asked if he had done something wrong; if everything was ok with Pipit, Karane had responded, "Oh there is no Pipit anymore, so its all just _peachy."_

And then she went back to Kina's, where she sent the rest of the first day stewing in her own anger and ranting at spontaneous intervals that she hated him and was never going back.

"What about all your stuff?" Kina had asked. "You're kinda engaged to the guy, you moved in together."

Karane ground her teeth. "I'll go get it later when he's on patrol," she muttered, biting her finger nails and pacing. Kina just began to roll her eyes at her friend.

The second day, others on Skyloft were hearing word. When Karane went to and from work, she could feel the looks and hear the whispering gossip. At this point, her anger had died. Hearing the entire island talk about it like it was their business too had made her feel alone. The only other person who would even relate was Pipit and he was…

_Speak of the damn devil,_ Karane thought to herself. Just as she was leaving her own patrol shirt, he was taking up his. Two days ago, it would have been a lovely time to steal quick kisses. Now, it was the longest thirty seconds of her life to have to walk down that hallway and know he was there.

She forced herself not to look at him. It didn't matter that her heart was lurching or that her body just craved to be held, she couldn't do it. She couldn't look at him. If she did, she'd start crying and she was too proud to break down that easily. It would have meant he was right, and while he had not been entirely wrong, Karane wasn't going to be the first one to break.

_Don't look at him, don't say a word,_ she coached herself, keeping her back rigged as she walked down the hall. _You don't talk to him unless he talks to you first. If he talks to you first, then it means he cares. If not, he's a worthless heartless bastard and you should move on._

They passed each other, neither saying a word, and they both finished their walks. Pipit went on his patrol, and Karane fled back to Kina's house and began to cry again. She felt alone and empty now. Everyone was talking about it now, and the only person who could relate hadn't said a word to her at all.

"He doesn't care!" Karane had sobbed that evening. Kina had tactfully summoned the court of women and Orielle, Zelda, and Peatrice were all there to assist with the tears and the ice cream.

"You know what you need?" Kina had insisted. Orielle and Zelda did not seem to be looking forward to this advice. "You need a date."

"No I don't," Karane had whined, her face in a pillow. "I need Pipit."

"Nope, date time!"

The next day, Kina had indeed gotten Karane a date. With Keet. He hadn't exactly volunteered for it, Karane was under the impression that some kind of extortion was involved. But the girls had helped get Karane prettied up. She wore the blue dress she had worn to her and Pipit's first date, and Zelda made her hair into something that looked normal, rather than the grief stricken mess it had been the past two days.

Her eyes were still pink from all of the crying, but she had gone on the date with Keet. He took her to the cafe inside the bazaar for dinner and been nice and polite about it. Neither of them were romantically interested in each other at all, but Kina had insisted on this.

The dinner went mostly quietly, Karane not being a mood to talk, and then Keet was walking her back to where their loftwings were. That was then the two of them happened to run into Pipit yet again.

It had been a silent moment of pure tension.

He was there… he could see. Karane couldn't get it out of her head that Pipit was watching her be on a date with another man. This time she had looked at him, no longer being bull headed but only heart broken. They had made brief eye contact, then Pipit had looked away and kept walking so that he could pass them up.

Once again he hadn't spoken.

Karane, feeling a sudden wave of hurt and hatred, grabbed Keet by his shirt and slammed her lips into his own when Pipit was right in front of them. She felt the need to twist the knife in further.

They made eye contact again, but still neither of them spoke. Keet was left confused and uncomfortable, but then Karane had gone back to the Lumpy Pumpkin and Pipit had gone home.

Keet had followed her back, not sure if he should be concerned or not, and he had been the one to sit with her that evening as she drank her sorrows away.

"Why won't he SAY anything to me?" she slovenly cried.

"Well, that kinda happens when you have a fight," Keet had reasoned, patting her back.

This hadn't exactly worked, and Karane went on in her drunken sobs rambling about how much she missed him and how much she hated him and how much she wished he was here. She fell asleep with a mug of beer in her hands and by that time, Keet had had enough.

No longer allowing Kina to have her dramatic way, Keet had lifted Karane over his shoulder and flown her back to the main land. He had marched her up to Pipit's house, knowing that he had the night off tonight.

The knocking had been harsh, and Pipit had answered, not looking to be in very good shape himself.

"What the hell?" had been the response.

"Take your fiancee," Keet had commanded, "She's a mess without you and you're a mess without her. Now I can't keep paying for her tab, so you better take care of this right now, or I swear to Hylia I will."

Pipit, taken aback by the younger man's boldness, nodded and obediently took his drunk fiance from Keet's hold.

"Good _night_!" Skyloftian pretty boy had grunted, walking away. He wanted to sleep, dammit.

Karane had managed to wake herself up a little bit in all of the jostling that had involved transporting her here. She tried to open her eyes and wasn't managing too well.

"Where's my beeeeerrrrr?" she whined with a slur.

Pipit sighed, taking her inside and kicking the door shut. "Back at the bar."

"Mmmmmnnnnn," she pouted. "But I want beeer."

"Too bad." Pipit still sounded aggravated, and considering he watched his fiancee kissing another man tonight, it was safe to assume that he was pretty pissed.

But the next words out of her mouth broke that tension that was there. "I miss Pipit," was the next drunken whimper. "Why won't he talk to meeeeeee?"

At that point it was hard to stay mad. She was half asleep and drunk beyond belief and she missed him. While it didn't fix everything all at once, it was the first step downhill in their fight, and Pipit tucked her into bed before he cuddled in beside her.

In the morning they would talk, but for now they had spent three days without one another. Three terrible horrible days, and it was time to rest and sleep.

They could talk in the morning.

* * *

**She Thought of Many Things**

She thought about her dress as she put it on that day. Her dress was white, but not that harsh white that was blinding to look at. It was an off-white, that kind of creamy looking color that was gentle and pretty. While Karane adored the color and the dress, she didn't think it suited her very well. But she figured that even Pipit might get annoyed if she showed up in pants.

So the dress was cream colored, with trim in lace. It wasn't a gaudy lace though, luckily, it was small and it blended in well with the rest of the fabric, making a very subtle piece of detail. Karane liked that, it wasn't too flashy or anything. She wasn't suited for flashy.

When she was waiting at the ceremony, looking at her husband to soon be in his own wedding garb for the first time, she mused on how he looked next. Pipit was dressed in the nicest fitting tunic she had ever seen him in. She had to admit, she was liking that. It was well fitted and it lacked the chainmail layer that usually hid anatomical details for both of them. The deep charcoal color of it made for a very formal contrast to Pipit's usual colorful, casual attire.

There was something about the official Sky Knight Crest being in the left corner of it that made him look particularly attractive today. She had the crest on the border of her own dress. Given that they were both knights, they both got to get married in uniform.

Karane walked down the aisle alone. She didn't exactly mind doing so, she was strong and independent, she could walk herself to her groom without a problem. But made her thinking grown more frantic. Her mind went to her father. Would he like Pipit? Would he approve her her getting married? Would he approve of her career? While she wanted to think that her father would be happy for her, she figured that the biggest problem about him being dead was that she was always going to be wondering.

But her mind had switched channels completely by the time she made it to Pipit. From there, she wasn't paying much attention to the sermon. She was holding Pipit's hand and she was staring right at him the whole time. She didn't smile though, she was in a kind of reverie. Her pale eyes were wide, both in anticipation and worry.

Marriage was a big step, Karane was wondering if they could handle it. Last night she had broken the usual rules and gone to talk to him. His words and kisses had comforted her, but she just wondered if either of them were really ready.

She felt her throat tighten when Pipit hesitated. He was supposed to say 'I do,' but on his cue, he was pausing. Karane panicked for that small moment. Maybe he wasn't ready! Maybe he had realized at the last minute that he didn't really love her! Maybe he was going to say 'no…'

But she breathed again when those dark blue eyes looked at her and he smiled and answered, "I do," his voice reflecting all of the adoration and love they both felt for each other.

So when Karane was asked for confirmation of her own vows, she grinned and answered, "You better believe it."

While Karane had thought about many things during the ceremony, the only thing she'd remember about her wedding day in the days to come was the look in Pipit's eyes. Because, as Karane found out, that look of adoration lasted much longer than just the ceremony— it went all through the night too.

* * *

**Apologies**

"I can't believe you called my baby ugly," Karane scoffed.

"I wasn't trying to call her ugly, I was trying to insult your husband," he corrected, a slight tone of bitterness still present.

Karane just lifted her eyebrow at him. After a moment, he relented. "Ok, ok, I'm sorry."

"That's for damn sure you are," Karane muttered, motherly anger in her voice.

It was strange, being stationed on the same patrol as Cawlin. Usually, Karane was given some kind of important scouting job, or she was doing something more than simple supervision. But she was fresh off of maternity leave and needed to get back into the swing of things. So, she had been stationed here, in the village outside Faron, doing basic security work.

It was weird being partnered up with him, of all people, given the strained history there. Cawlin had never been a particularly nice boy, but he had never been terrible. Karane never hated him. In fact, when he asked her out all those years ago, she had highly considered going through with it. He wasn't all bad, after all. She had felt sorry for him when she ended up turning him down. Pipit _had_ pretty much stolen his thunder.

Cawlin had sort of kept his distance fom her and Pipit after that, no doubt feeling hurt at first and just not wanting to see them so happy together. Karane could understand that kind of jealousy would take a toll on a person. But surely after so many years he couldn't still be mad about it, right? It had been so long, surely he had moved on… right?

As Karane leaned against the wall of one building, pausing to think about it, she began to realize something. Neither she nor Pipit had ever apologized to Cawlin for all that went down. Nobody had told him that they were sorry, really.

And it occurred to her that that must be why he was so bitter towards them. That must be why he was still making rude comments and insulting her baby. The poor guy deserved an apology.

Breaking the thick quiet, Karane spoke, "Hey… Cawlin?"

"Hmm?" he grunted, still shorter than her in some kind of height anomaly.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For turning you down the way I did," she clarified, her voice sincere. "You deserved better than that. I'm sorry."

The thick quiet returned for a few moments. Then the bluenette sighed, waving his hand jokingly. "Eh, I wasn't that into you anyway."

Karane chuckled. The tension was broken. That bitter kind of unspoken tension that had existed for years was gone. Karane had been right, even if it took her that long to figure out. Cawlin wasn't hung up on her or anything, he just wanted the apology that he deserved.

"Now if you can just get your husband to apologize to me too," Cawlin smirked teasingly. That made Karane REALLY laugh.

"AHAHA! Sorry, Cawlin, but I don't think Pipit will ever apologize for what he did," Karane admitted.

"Yeah, well he did get it pretty good in the end didn't he?" Cawlin agreed. "I guess he has no reason to."

"Well, in his defense," Karane added, patting Cawlin's shoulder, "You did call his baby ugly."


	20. Motherhood V

**Scrambled Eggs**

Karane really was trying to be nice to Mallara. She was! But it was soooo difficult sometimes. Take now for instance: Karane had come over in an attempt to have a nice peaceful lunch with Mallara and hopefully find some common ground with the woman. After all, Mallara was her mother-in-law and had been for a while now. It was time for them to stop arguing, because by now it was taking its long term toll on Pipit, and their kids were beginning to be confused by their grandmother and mother always fighting.

Karane had decided recently to be the bigger person and start trying to make peace, but Mallara was a difficult woman to work with. Particularly when she didn't want to compromise.

But here they both were, sitting down at Mallara's table. The older woman had her eyes narrowed at Karane, judging her and what she had brought to this luncheon of theirs.

"I'm sorry dear," Mallara's too-sweet voice cooed mockingly. "Did you forget that its one in the afternoon?"

Karane frowned. "No, Mallara, I just thought I'd bring what I can make the best."

"Hmm. Well its good to know my grandchildren will always get breakfast, if nothing else, from their mother."

Karane ground her teeth, trying so so hard to stay nice and polite. Pipit had warned her that his mother was probably going to be like this. He had warned her.

But Karane was beginning to regret bringing scrambled eggs, even if they were the one thing Karane knew how to make deliciously. Maybe she should have brought sandwiches. Sandwiches were easy enough to make, right?

But, as Karane mentally struggled with whether or not she should hit the woman across the table from her, Mallara actually took a fork and tasted the eggs.

"Hmmm," she responded, her lips pursing. "Well I suppose you're right. This is the first thing you haven't burnt."

Karane lifted her eyebrows. Was that an almost compliment?

"Thanks…" she hesitantly nodded. "I've been scrambling eggs since I was a kid."

"Hmph, your mother never taught you to make anything else?" Mallara sort of chuckled, mocking tone returning.

Karane narrowed her eyes again. Rather than making a biting comment back, she decided to be frank with the woman. "No, actually, this is the thing I taught myself how to make. It was the only thing my mother could eat when she was invalid."

There was silence then, both women eying each other; Karane challenging Mallara to either insult her mother or insult herself, Mallara thinking up her next move of mockery.

But, surprising them both, Mallara took another bite of the eggs and said, "Well, I can see why. They are much better than your usual fare."

Karane smirked. Two almost compliments in one sitting. Maybe they could learn to get along.

* * *

**Lists of Three**

When she was a child, her favorite things were a simple three. Mud, cookies, and her father's beard. Mud was of course, the best thing to play in. It was squishy and goopy and it made the best play mate. Cookies were delicious and tasty and probably one of the best things. Daddy's beard was fluffy and soft and it tickled when he snuggled her. All of these three things were Karane's absolute favorite, and they always made her happy.

When she had grown a few years and matured a little, her three favorite things had changed. Now, Karane favored flying on Hatchet, sword sparring, and (secretly of course) Pipit. Flying was probably every young teenager's favorite thing right now, since they were finally being given the chance to do so. It was exhilarating to be soaring through the clouds like that and sailing across the sky. Sword sparring was another one of those adrenaline rushes that made her feel independent and strong. It was a mark of strength. And Pipit… well, Pipit was the paragon of the perfect boy. He was cute, he was smart for the most part, he was polite, and man was he fun to fight in sparring practice. As a teenager, flying, fighting, and Pipit were the three simple things that made Karane happy.

Even further up the timeline, Karane's list of favorite things could no longer be contained in only three. Try as she might, she could not sum up her happiness in three slots. No, it required four now. A simple four things, really. Pitta, Lark, Ibis, and of course, Pipit.

* * *

**Oh the Times have Changed**

Karane looked at him flatly. She felt like she shouldn't be believing this, but she knew it was true. There was no way it wasn't, the evidence was very clear.

Here her daughter, Pitta to be precise, had a big black eye. Pitta was only a tiny thing too, barely four. She wasn't capable of giving herself that kind of injury, and she knew it hadn't been Lark. Lark wasn't even two years old yet, and Karane was holding the quiet baby in her arm right now, balancing her on her hip bone.

"Are you serious?" Karane asked, needing confirmation from the only other adult here right now.

"I'm so sorry, Karane," he sighed, looking genuinely apologetic. "I saw it happen, there is no excuse. I promise you, he WILL be punished, I just thought you should know from his own mouth."

The red head mother fixed her eyes on the little boy. He was a good one or two years older than her first daughter and was the culprit behind the attack. "Well?" she sternly barked. "Are you going to tell me, or shall I ask Pitta?"

The little boy huffed and insisted, "She kicked me!"

"Young man, two wrongs don't make a right!" his father snapped, shaking the infamous parental scolding finger at him. "She is younger than you, you should never hit others, especially when they're smaller!"

Karane glanced at he father and smirked in approval. She was impressed, he hadn't told his son not to hit Pitta because she was a girl, he had kept the playing feild equal. Well, looks like at least some of the boys she went to school with had learned.

"Your father is right," Karane agreed, her voice still stern. "So, what are you going to do?"

The little boy huffed again and shuffled his feet. "I'm sorry…" he muttered.

"Pitta can't hear you, enunciate please," Karane commanded. Pitta was currently hiding behind her mother's legs, trying to use the pants as cover, but it wasn't working out so well.

"I'm sorry!" he tried again, raising his head and speaking up.

Karane nodded, "Alright, now Pitta what do you have to say?"

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" the four year old cried. Karane rolled her eyes.

"No, try again."

Pitta sniffled and kept herself hidden behind her mother's calves and instead said, "… That's ok, now go away."

"Pitta?"

"Now go away _please."_

Karane looked to the boy's father and they both chuckled internally.

"Ok, Pitta, very good, now go up to your room and play for a bit, I'm going to show the boys out," she said. Pitta gladly scampered up the stairs and tightly shut her room door behind her.

Karane opened the door with her free hand, her left arm still cradling her younger daughter. Luckily, Lark was a quiet baby and had been happy enough to keep her face hidden in Karane's shoulder, peeking out only a few times.

The little boy marched out first, obviously a little bit aggravated with this red head and her mother. But, as he walked through the door, the father paused to apologize again.

She stopped him before he could speak by quipping in, "Well, this is probably the biggest case of karma I've ever seen, hmm? Seriously, where does that kid get it from, Fledge? I know he didn't inherit your fighting instincts."

Fledge let out his own small chuckle. Even though they'd all grown up, he was still a soft spoken man. "I don't know… I'm so sorry though. Really!"

"Well," Karane smiled, patting Fledge's shoulder. He was taller than her now. "Just make sure he knows not to hit anyone, and I'll start teaching Pitta how to stand up for herself."

Fledge laughed outright. "Maybe the times haven't changed at all, Karane. If you teach her how to fight I think that little girl will be running the playground with an iron first."

Karane snorted, "Maybe. You should probably teach your son one other thing then, Fledgey."

"What's that?" he asked bemusedly.

"You never squeal."


	21. Death

**Transcending Time**

She had not been expecting to see them when she closed her eyes. She could remember hearing someone else's voice calling her name as she slipped. But, when she opened her eyes again, she was seeing them.

He looked the very same, dressed in his green uniform with his big bushy beard. She ran to him, a child, slamming into his knees and wailing into his linen pants.

She cried his name, over and over, and he scooped her back up into his arms, his beard once again tickling her face in the scratchy way it had so many, many years ago. He kissed her forehead and murmured his apologies for having to leave her.

"Daddy," she whimpered, no older than five. "I took up your color…" she sniffled, "People tell me it suits me."

"It does, princess," he murmured, the rumbling of his bass voice comforting away her tears.

She opened her eyes again and was looking up at him. He had been so tall. But he wasn't holding her now, she was standing on her own, still about a foot short of him.

She had his dark ruddy hair and she wore his color. She smiled through the tears in her pale eyes and she hugged him again, this time able to bury her nose in his uniform without assistance. He smelled like leather and fern grass, just like she remembered from so long, long ago.

Then she looked to her mother.

She was the same petite, demure woman she had always been. Her pale blonde hair and pale, pale skin were just like the statue that had once laid in their bed. A sad smile was on her mother's lips, and she offered a hand to her daughter.

Karane strode to her three steps, then harshly slapped her mother across the face. It left no mark, and Karane immediately crumbled into a fit of violent keening.

"You left me!" she screamed, now at her mother's feet, clutching her long dress. "You gave up! WHY? Why didn't you fight? Why didn't you fight for ME? I NEEDED YOU!"

Her mother knelt to her and wrapped her thin, weak arms around her daughter, who was once more a child, of age 9 and covered in mud. "Shhh, my sweet baby," she cooed. "I'm sorry."

Karane inhaled her scent of vanilla and laundry with every angry sob. It was just like she remember, but this time it gave her no comfort. She pounded her fists against the ground and wanted too much to cling to that anger. She wanted to so much… so so much…

But Karane stood back up and was taller than her mother now, in a pair of patchwork overalls that were rolled up to her knees. Her mother smiled at that and embraced her daughter with a surprisingly tight grip despite how delicate she looked.

Her father's arms wrapped around them both, putting her in between them both. She was once again a child, and they both cuddled her close, her father perching her in his arms.

As the tears subsided, Karane had grown again and she was now much older than either of them were. Her parents looked the way she remember them, and when she looked down at herself, she looked the way of the most recent memory. She felt herself grow suddenly self-conscious of her appearance. She did not look their daughter, she was too grown for it. Her read hair was fading into paler tones and greys, her face showed creases, and her stature was taller and stronger and wider with age and experience.

She wore her uniform, now worn with age and sporting places where repairs had taken place. Her mail was well kept, though, and she garnished honor patches for her long standing service. Her father smiled and murmured to her, "My strong girl."

Karane let out a small laugh and her mother readjusted her beret for her, it had gotten askew. "My beautiful daughter," she whispered, kissing her cheek.

They each held one of her hands.

"Where are we?" she whispered, barely able to speak the words.

"Its not for us to tell, princess," her father whispered back.

"Who CAN tell me?" she asked.

"Only you can answer the question for yourself," her mother murmured, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Karane took a deep breath. When she exhaled the air, she opened her eyes again and she bravely said, "I'm ready."

She took a step forward, her parents stepping with her, holding her hands through the struggle. With each step, she was a child, a youth, a woman, a mother. She was all of them at once, all of the ways she was remembered. A few times, her parents had to carry her along a step, because she was too young to walk it herself. Other times, she was faster than they were, having to wait for them to catch up to her nimble legs.

But she made the journey bit by bit, always transforming from one age to the next. She did not know what she was going towards, but she knew what she was leaving behind. She was leaving behind a family, she was leaving behind friends. She was leaving behind a career, she was leaving behind a legacy.

But as she left those things behind, she knew they would not fade. They still had time to go on. They had a path to take too, and it would lead them further into age.

Hers, on the other hand, was repeating itself as she walked stalwartly forward with her parents, hand in hand. She was a child, a youth, a woman, a mother, a knight, a student, a lover, an enemy. She was all of these things and none of these things anymore.

Death transcended time.


End file.
